Hi as the title informs these are the thoughts of an econ major. Since the implementation of WN SS system, I've looked into it in comparison to other companies and what they practice. (Note: Only American companies, I'm uncultured and can only read English.)
Okay so the main thing to me is cost, as a completely free user, I pay nothing.
Now if you want everything single chapter, 3000-5000 at a cost of an avg. 12 SS, it would cost 60,000 SS, or 950$. Now again this number is, in fact, high or maybe even low I don't know. I'm on hotel wifi and am unable to click every story and add up the amount of locked chapters. So I took the first 4 and got near 1000 so I thought 3-5 would be a fair guess, I mean really one of them had 500 on its own. Now if also only buy on discount days the number would be 10 instead of 12 but RTW with its 16 SS really inflates the costs. Without it, the average cost is closer to 8.
Also, there might be closer to 20K chapters (100 novels at 200 SS chapters.) $2,500. This is why I'm saying $950 is a fair estimate.
A pure pay account is $950, with a leftover 1750 SS or 145 more chapters.
Now let's see how much do other companies cost. Kindle Unlimited costs, about $120 year.
Netflix $100-$150 depending on the plan. Hulu is similar.
Most companies do a month by month cost while WN does by chapters. But these aren't who WN are competing against. Volare, Gravity, WW, etc. they are the main people I think of when I think of Chinese web novels. So how much do they cost on patreon vs what you get?
I'll use Martial World as the baseline because of hotel wifi. At $185 a month, you get 45 advance chapters, $2,220 a year. This is for only one novel, unlike 100 on WN for $2,500 at 200 chapters. You see a difference?
WN's after you become premium you need to pay for the future chapters that come later, at 200 chapters released a day at 6 - 18 cost we get 1200 - 3600 SS per day, or 438,000 - 1,314,000 a year = $6,750 - $20,200 a year. Not counting mass releases, of which were 66 extra chapters a week, 3,432 a year. 20,592 - 61,776 SS = $350 - $1,000 a year.
Okay now that we have out numbers, to which WN is way higher, let us compare. WN you get 100 novels and 200 "advance chapters" at 950 - 2,500 + daily uploads of 200 chapters 6,750 - 20,200 + mass releases of 66 chapters weekly 350 - 1,000 for a grand total of $8,050 - $23,700 a year. Just wow, but then again think of how many chapters that is? For anyone who doesn't do the math, 81,432! That is insane.
Now MW gives 45 advance chapters at 185 a month and 2,220 a year. I've never donated through patreon so I'm not sure how this works but I'll make the same assumption I made with WN you are 45 chapters ahead of free readers. MW gives 2 chapters a day or 730 a year, 1/112 of WN.
You on average on WN get 1-4 free chapters a day depending on your level and novel. After 11-45 days you would have made, by MW standards, $185.
I don't see why people are complaining. WN in my eyes are doing better per novel price than MW. Do I wish every chapter was free? Yes, I'm a poor college student I have no money. I do know though without income WN and every other novel site would die out.
So here are my closing thoughts, WN isn't going a bad thing and everyone complaining I'm right there with you. WN's is visible but look elsewhere as well. Is MW likely higher than other novels? Yes, if you can get me other patreon numbers I'll happily calculate it next to WN's but the way I see it, patreon monthly cost, comes out to be not even close to what WN offers.
If I were to only do WN at the cost of only one novel versus the whole site, the prices aren't even close. 200 - 500 chapters at the cost 6-18 SS we get to less than $300. So yea, WN keep the SS system don't go to monthly payments. I like cheap, me cheap.
tl;dr WN costs is in my eyes better than MW costs.
