Webnovel.Forum

Zogarth1337
I'm inclined to agree with your argument. To put it simply: if ads is not sustainable, and the cost of following multiple novels with premium model is too high, then why not go for the subscription, all-you-can-read model?

CKtalon
That's a good point. Thanks for bringing it up. Also, it closed the 'ads is not sustainable for business in the long run' argument brilliantly.

With that being said, I guess the only option left for users that want to support the community but have no money, is to earn spirit stones. Of how users may be able to earn them with watching ads, or any other alternative, is of course out of the scope of this discourse, and best leave for another time.

Thanks for the discussion, lad!

CKtalon
Let's focus on your last question: are people willing to watch 20-30 ads for 5 minutes or more?
To be honest, you said it yourself: that, we don't know :)
So why don't we ask the readers?
(If you ask me, I will say "Hell, yeah". I've played games that force me to watch ads every so often. This can't be that bad)

Also, the initial suggestions is simply to give options to reader; to either unlock Premium Chapter with the easy way (Spirit Stones, preferably the ones that they buy), or the hard way (watch a shitload of ads). I would argue that this is more preferable than only giving 1 option to unlock, as we have now.

CKtalon In the spirit of discourse, allow me to sum up your arguments, as well as my, or other people's responses:

1. The real cost of a Premium Chapter is more than 1 ads
2. Ads is not sustainable for business in the long term
3. Too much ads will break reading immersion.

While the responses are as follows:
R1. Regarding point 3. As far as I know, there's no survey to users about the impact of watching multiple ads to their reading immersion. Therefore, I can only safely categorised this statement as opinion or assumption, instead of fact. Ergo, point 3 is not a valid reason.
R2. Regarding point 2. Google's business model depends heavily on ads since its inception until now. Thus, point 2 is not a valid reason.
R3. Regarding point 1. I have included the possibility of higher real cost of spirit stones in the first post. However, what about user's willingness to watch ads in order to get spirit stones? Indeed, such study hasn't been made (AFAIK), and only after we grasp the reality that this proposed question can even be taken seriously.

Ergo, I would like to propose to QI to make a survey about users' willingness to watch multiple ads in order to unlock the Premium Chapter. Alternatively, we can also survey users' willingness to watch multiple ads to get spirit stones (extension to the current program)

GegeSadewa That's what I'm aiming at with this discussion. For the people who are able to pay, there's no problem at all. However, what about people, say, in third world country (minus Switzerland, of course)? What about them that 'economically marginalised' but still want to support QI as a business and community? When there's a middle way of capitalising on ads to get spirit stones, why don't we optimised it?

CKtalon Why ads is not sustainable? Don't forget that a big chunk of Google's business model (for example) depends heavily on ads.

On the matter of the amount of ads to cover cost per chapter (putting the economic calculation aside, for now): if the readers are happy to watch ads to unlock the chapter, what can we do about it?

If we observe that:
1. Premium chapter's cost range is about 7-13 spirit stones
2. We can watch 1 video daily and get around 7-12 spirit stones.

Thus, from readers/users point of view, we can say that 1 Premium Chapter costs 1 advertisement (to be watched).

Hence, it brings a question: why there's no 'watching ads' option in Premium Chapter?

If, from the perspective of QI as a business entity, the profit from ads is indeed less than the profit from selling spirit stones, why not adding more ads? E.g. 1 Premium Chapter may costs 2 or 3 ads.