Paid boutique or free traffic, what is the future of online literature?

  The initial development of online literary websites depends entirely on writers' non-remunerated writing and readers' generous donations to overcome difficulties.

Until 2004, Qidian.com.cn took the lead in establishing a VIP paid subscription model, and readers paid to read the article section of the network.

Since then, the film and television adaptation of online literature and the operation of IP-based series have been built on this model.

  However, in 2019, a free reading model with "monetization of traffic" as a profit mechanism turned out.

The author and the platform share the profits generated by readers from browsing and clicking on advertisements.

Author's income is no longer determined by the number of subscribers and loyal fans, but by the effective reading time of users.

What impact will the free reading model have on the already stable online literature market?

How will the paid model and free model affect online literature writers?

Do you want more readers or better articles?

What is the future of online literature?

  The Beijing News Book Review Weekly interviewed Shao Yanjun, a professor of the Chinese Department of Peking University, the host of the Peking University Internet Literature Research Forum, and weid, a native critic of online literature and one of the founders of the online literature website "Dragon Sky", and free reading of online literature. Xie Sipeng, editor-in-chief of the website "Tomato Novels", hopes to discuss the above issues from the three dimensions of academia, industry, and platform.

Mode change

From free to paid

  Beijing News: The online literature website was free at the beginning, but in the end the free model proved to be infeasible.

What is the biggest difference between the current free model and the free model twenty years ago?

  weid: The biggest difference is the large number of advertisers entering, making the scale of traffic monetization far beyond the past.

  Before starting the VIP payment model in 2004, there was advertising revenue.

At that time, its traffic was already very large, and it once rushed into the top 100 global traffic, ranking the top 20 of all websites in China.

But the advertising revenue can only be equal to its daily support, and it can't even afford the additional server and staff salary expenses.

Now advertisers are obviously willing to spend more money.

  But on the other hand, once the free reading platform stops buying website promotion and granting reading subsidies, it may face a large number of user losses.

In a user's limited active usage cycle, the frequency of advertisements you can place on him is fixed. If you only rely on the frequency of display to monetize, the income you can get from advertisers is also fixed.

Only by improving the monetization efficiency of each advertisement, allowing readers to click on the advertisements he sees through precise placement, and even download the game or software, can we make better profits.

Accurate delivery is what the ByteDance behind Tomato Novels is very good at. This is the technical support for Tomato Novels to come from behind and become the free reading platform with the most traffic.

  Shao Yanjun: The current free model is different from the state of free 20 years ago. The current free model is the same as the paid model. It is a business model with a different form.

If the payment model was not established back then, it would be difficult for online literature to continue to grow so vigorously.

Because it needs a business model to transform people’s love for power generation and amateur creation into a stable and continuously growing production mechanism.

  Today's free model is a new business model after the payment model has matured and online literature has grown. It is related to big capital and big data, but it is different from free.

  Beijing News: Where is the market for free reading platforms?

What kind of user group does it target?

  Shao Yanjun: The users of the free model are actually new users acquired through various methods of attracting traffic and sinking.

They are "Xiaobai" readers to the web, but they are not the same concept as "Xiaobai" as we said back then.

With the popularization of the Internet, the "Xiaobai" attracted younger readers in addition to the original core and relatively elite old white readers. A few years later, the core of them may also become old white readers. "Xiaobai" is more of an age concept.

  Today's free readers have a group of sinking users, but the age group is at all levels.

We are cooperating with Tomato Novels to make user portraits. According to our preliminary results, the current free mode users are not young.

  Due to the impact of short videos, the overall scale and proportion of time of online text users are declining. After that, users who really have room for development are middle-aged and elderly people who are habitually obsessed with text.

They may not be young, have a low education level, and have a low income, but they have not read many web articles.

So after they came in, the first thing they looked at was the routines of Zuoyuewen and Duobaowen.

But if they keep watching, it's hard to tell where they will go.

Because most middle-aged and elderly people still have more traditional tastes and have some reading experience in classic literature, when the works on free reading platforms can no longer satisfy them, they may also turn to paid platforms such as Qidian.com.

  weid: The current logic of Tomato Novels is that the highest conversion rate of reading to users is only 20%. Where is the remaining 80%?

Your 1 genuine user corresponds to 5 pirated users, and 1 paying user corresponds to 5 users who are not willing to spend money. My market is definitely bigger than you.

However, Tomato Novels must first compete with rivals such as wireless reading platforms and new media articles, and secondly, they must compete with similarly free pirated novel platforms.

  For example, a reader who is unwilling to spend money to read books, why read books in Tomato Novels instead of pirated sites?

Is it because tomato novels have fewer ads?

Is the book better?

Or is it because there are subsidies in Tomato to make online earning?

You have to give me a reason.

If the large number of books obtained by Tomato Novels through resource integration cannot sway these pirated users, then its strategy cannot be considered a success.

  Xie Sipeng: When there was only a paid reading platform, less than 10% of readers who read the entire novel chose to pay. Other users would watch pirated content or read other books after paying the node. Now they just look at a part of the pirated version. Users are attracted to watch genuine novels.

I think most people are still willing to see the original when they can see the original without paying for it.

Moreover, you can communicate and interact with the author on the genuine platform, which is not available on pirated websites.

  Paid reading

  Does it mean the "spoiler" of online literature

  Beijing News: How might the different profit mechanisms of free and paid platforms affect the choice of online writers?

  weid: I think the author's mentality is very consistent: go where you can make more money.

The benefit-driven is the main body, and the benefit-driven makes the matter of online writing sustainable and growing.

In this process, several people are generating power for love, but they will certainly not exceed 5%.

Generating power for love is a good thing, but it cannot promote the development of the industry.

  From the perspective of practitioners, there is a particularly important baseline, which is the consumption level of the author's city.

The author should live a relatively dignified life in the local area by relying on creation. This line is very clear.

  I think that based on the ambition of Tomato Novels in terms of free reading, or from the expectations of the capital market, it is necessary to achieve an annual contribution of 5 billion in three to five years.

I think this should be attractive to middle- and lower-level writers.

I suggest that authors who do not have enough basic disks may consider the possibility of embracing free. If the creative model of free reading is significantly different from the paid model in the future, then a group of leading authors who focus on the free reading market will inevitably emerge.

Authors who occupy the top position during the market expansion period will inevitably get the most generous dividends.

  Xie Sipeng: The free model is conducive to the quality of online literature.

Previously, online literature mainly relied on subscriptions and rewards for revenue, and readers had to bear the reading costs themselves. Once payment was made, readers were still paying the bill.

Online literature should be based on the effective reading time as a measure of content, and select and motivate the best authors.

Only after the establishment of a diversified income model of advertising sharing, user rewards, and IP incubation, can new writers and writers have more opportunities to stand out.

  Beijing News: Is the emergence of the free reading model a "spoiler" or a "catfish" in the online literature industry?

What changes might they bring to online literature?

  Shao Yanjun: Both "spoilers" or "catfish" talk about the free model from a direct affirmative or negative level. I don't think it is necessarily correct.

Because of the success of Chinese online literature, the core element is the establishment of a payment model.

This is also the reason why Chinese online literature is unique in the world today, so we will attach great importance to the payment model.

But other countries, such as Korean online literature, or overseas online literature fan translation sites, and major video sites, are not all free models and membership systems?

The payment model of online literature was born from the original fan group and is a business model for fans, while the free model is a business model led by big capital after the intervention of big capital.

  The greater impact of the free model lies in the big data distribution system represented by Tomato Novels behind it.

In a sense, this distribution system is better than an elite recommendation system, represented by the starting point Chinese website, and jointly established by "Lao Bai" fans and editors.

However, it is still unclear how far the precise recommendation of this distribution system can go.

  But in general, I think the free model should be a more mainstream and lower-level online literature business model in the future.

At the same time, the payment model will continue to exist for a long time, becoming a relatively niche ecology, but with the elite voice and the characteristics of opinion leaders.

  If the two can coexist amicably and maintain good interaction, it is conducive to the development of online literature.

But the free model does bring some subversiveness to the existing ecology, so how it will develop in the future remains to be seen.

  weid: I think the free model wants to be a disruptor, but it is currently only an enabler.

In any case, it is also a non-paying user. Compared with Tieba and pirated book stations, the admission of free novel platforms has made the entire online literature market bigger, and more writers can make money, which is always good.

  In terms of bringing users who are unwilling to spend money to read novels into the regulated online literature market, the tomato novels backed by Toutiao currently have the most economic strength and technical accumulation, and they are the most important in the free market. The style of play is also very clear.

  Beijing News: What impact will the free reading mode have on the creation type and text mode of online literature?

  Xie Sipeng: Actually it is no different.

For users, there is no difference between paid reading platforms and free reading platforms, only content preferences.

Take a video website as an example. In the final analysis, choosing a certain website to watch videos is not because of its special mode or whether it costs money. It must be because of a certain drama during this period. I want to watch this drama, and this website has this Drama.

Users ultimately pay for the content.

  weid: My feeling is that web posts may become shorter and shorter in the free mode.

If there is no difference in your work, you will not even be able to fight against piracy.

After all, I want to read a novel with 4 million words. I don’t want to read books with great gods like squid and cats. I’m looking at an unknown author. What do I picture?

  Under the VIP system, because the longer the top works stay on the list, the more obvious the agglomeration effect will be, and the newly opened novels themselves have certain market risks, so it is unreasonable for top authors to write short novels.

However, in the free mode, it is not clear what type and length of web posts have the most obvious effect on improving the duration of user platform stay.

One of the possibilities is that the work may not be as long as three or four million words. Perhaps it is enough to go back to 1.2 million to two million words ten years ago, or even 800,000 to 1.2 million words. it is good.

  For free platforms, it doesn’t matter which book the user reads after, but the length of time the user stays on the platform as a whole is the key.

The paid conversion rate and follow-up data of the paid platform are core operating indicators, and there are inherent differences in operating strategies.

  Literature type

  The prospect of online literature

  Beijing News: Looking at it this way, is it possible that the free model will promote the emergence of more types of online text?

  weid: The so-called new type is actually a very significant innovation on top of an original type, and the result of subsequent imitations.

From the creator's point of view, it is not completely market driven.

  Relatively speaking, the diversity of types depends more on the unique user concentration of the market head platform.

When Tomato Novel was still a chaser, it probably didn't have the energy to promote this diversity.

  If tomato novels promote diversity in the early stages, the impulse must come from the cooperative relationship with the writers association or the need for product promotion.

  Beijing News: What are the standards for online literature and how are they different from traditional literature and popular literature?

  Shao Yanjun: Compared with traditional literature, online literature has several most important characteristics: First, it must be a certain type of master.

Because online literature is a genre novel, there are a large number of similar works, and it wants to be the best of its kind.

  Secondly, online novels are more commercial. It is impossible to hide famous mountains like traditional literature and stay in the future. They must be sought after right now.

Its follow-up influence may not necessarily be read repeatedly like traditional literary classics, but it will not only affect contemporary readers, but also affect the next generation of writers.

They may pay tribute to it, rewrite it, subvert it, but they can't get around it anyway, it will become part of the basic database.

  Beijing News: On the other hand, film and television adaptations and gamification adaptations provide a new possibility for online literature, and even become the "ultimate goal" of writers. What do you think of this phenomenon?

Will this make Internet literature lose its own subjectivity?

  Shao Yanjun: Now we will see that if a work is adapted, it can immediately bring in huge income, if it is adapted well, it can immediately have a huge impact. Under such circumstances, of course all authors want their own It is understandable that the works have been adapted to expand their influence.

However, literary writing and script writing are two types of art after all. There are different artistic rules and different audience groups behind them. If you rush to adapt, don’t expect to earn income from VIP subscriptions, you must choose between them.

  Most online literary works do not have the opportunity to be adapted for film and television. Whether it is good or not, the success rate is very low.

After all, the current online literature itself has a relatively mature and stable growth feedback mechanism to reflect the quality of a work. In a sense, the failure rate is lower and the growth possibility is greater.

From a literary point of view, I certainly hope that all art categories will perform their duties, settle their own points, and make their own fine works. Only in this way will it be conducive to the prosperity and development of all industries.

IP adaptation is rich, but the principle behind online novels is still literature, and the rules of literature must be followed.