Qidian's Paywall

But that is my model at least. I don't even ask users to provide emails or anything.
Google might be trying to sell their data but I am not

 

I don't see how it is beneficial to operate at a loss for any given company...

They wouldn't bother with going international if they weren't seeking profit IMO.

I do agree that it will take a while for them to cover the initial investments (which were certainly big), but it would be pointless to even make them if they didn't earn from it.



Hmmmmmm... I could argue with some other points you raised, but... I think I agree with some points and disagree with others, but your point of view overall makes sense...

If anything, I think this is possibly true, though I am unsure on how much and how quick would they get this money.

I mean, in the end they still want to maximize profits after all.

Also... Some readers wouldn't ever pay regardless of what system they implemented (which is probably the majority of users here tbh), so they don't need to catter too much for those...

I mean, they're a company after all, having more free readers means more popularity, which means more chance of getting paying readers, so... While they do need to catter to the non-paying customers, their main goal is to make people spend.

So... A bit unsure on what kind of service they would need to offer to get more paying customers and to make them pay more. I think they know it better than me to say the least.

Well, that makes sense, you should expect high quality from them.

So... If they fail to deliver high quality, I think you should not pay any money for them to read those poor quality novels...

I think that's the good part of a mixed free/paid system, you can check the quality for yourself and decide rather or not it is worth your money.

*nod nod* It is certainly a problem to have poor quality works on their site...

On the other hand, it is nice for the translators to have a company that is willing to pay them for their amateur work. Especially because they are very anonymous as Qidian translators, so they don't need to worry about facing backlash.

But yeah, good for the translators, bad for readers isn't exactly the best model... >.>

 

They are customers.

Google provides a service, which it's customers use, and they derive revenue from this.

It's users are both customers and a product. They aren't exclusive to each other.

You're also incorrect on gmail. They do actually provide customer service, it's just not live.

 

I don't think you understand what is full paywall. Chapters will be released as usual and you still can get SS as well as usual as well. It doesn't force you to pay. It's your impatient that is forcing you to, unless you genuinely want to support the author, translators and editors.

 

If you use ads of any sort, you're selling their data. Ads having their own tracking, and impression and interest data is part of what they are paying you for, even if you're not selling your databases.

 

do you know the schedule for RTW

 

Hello, long time lurker here, this would be my first post, I guess.

Personally, I don't think I will ever pay Qidian any money, just out of principle, because they seem to me like a shitty company, what happened with WW and all.

However, what I don't get, is the prevalent sense of entitlement of some people. Just because it was free, why do people feel they are entitled to it staying that way?? I know it sucks, but that is it. If you want to pay, do it. Not, don't pay. They might as well do a full pay-wall, since it's their business. From the perspective of a company, this move looks like a good business model. Guys (and gals), please stop acting like the free chapters are in your constitution, or as if you paid for them and they scammed you. It's just entertainment media, if you want, might as well give them some constructive criticism and move on.

 

You sell a product... data represent the users.. you are making my point

 

What I still don't understand is will my "free chapter" be released for free ( and I won't need to create an account) or my "free chapter" means that I will get scam stones to unlock them? if it's the latter that means if I want to start reading a new novel I will be limited to 7cp a week too?

 

2 free chapters a day

 

Just fickled around a little and found that you can get enough spirit stones for 1-2 chapters daily simply by checking in. Seems to be advance chapters for now, but if they implement a full paywall, I'm sure pirate sites will pop up.

 

Ah you're having a common misunderstanding.

QI is a daughter company, they have a parent company that is the entity that's actually out to make profit.

Parent company create sub companies to compartmentalized revenue, and to create opportunities to decrease tax liabilities.

For example, QI doesn't own any of the licenese for the stories they host. It's parent company(ies) holds them. They are then licensed to QI so they can use them, but, and here is the important part, they charge QI for this service(usually through a sister company).

So QI's parent is drawing revuene from them, while QI marks this as a cost. The parent then spends money on QI, which is also marked as a cost.

With QI running at a loss, this lowers their tax burdens. The parent company is still making a profit, but is getting to write off it's development investments as lost revenue, increasing their share of profits after tax.

This is how hollywood operates as well. Most movies never "make" any money, because all their revenue is spent as production costs, which goes into the pockets of the owners.

 

can you elaborate?
there is supposed to be one right now if what you say is true.

 

That's irrelevant to them being customers.

Every company treats it's customers as a product, it's a core aspect of business.

Your customer base is a product you've created through your business, and they have real value to both you and external entities.

You shape that customer base with your service, and derive value from them. Even if you aren't directly selling their data, they are still a product, paying or not.

You're trying to view customers and products as two wholly separate, exclusive concepts. That's flawed and harmful to both your business and your customerbase.

 

It says there will be 7 chapters a week for free, and another 10 a week you have to spend spirit stones on. So based on this, pretty quickly you'll be far behind the latest chapters unless you spend stones. Keep in mind that simply checking in and voting gives you enough for 1-2 chapters every day, so technically, you can catch up with this series for free as long as you do your daily checkin stuff. Of course, this can easily change whenever qi does something with the current system.

I'm actually surprised that they removed the ads tho.

 

Hmmmmm... Well, I think this is just a huge bureocracy and complicated thing to maximize profits in the end, right?

Like, I assume they actually lost money only so far, simply because they seem to have few ads on their sites, and they seem to have many translators and editors working on a good pay.

So, I think that right now they are on a "real" loss, they'll probably change that to a loss on paper with this new system, but this is something that we have no way of knowing.

 

Not according to the QI TL that's chimed in, it's 1 a day now.

 

Let's agree to disagree.

 

It's hard to say, they could be due to their start up expenditures and contractor costs, but we don't know their revenue numbers, or how much they are paying for licensing.


I'd expect they are definitely in the red for the startup costs, but the real question is contractor costs vs revenue. Ongoing costs are what need to be lower than reveune for the business to be profitable, one time costs are largely irrelevant(unless overly burdensome).

That said, they could still be loosing money, and be a net profit for the parent company if they can use those losses to offset their tax burdens.

 

It's 1 chapter perday it seems. Not that huge of a deal for me.

The current translation is 300 chapters away from the raw. You can say it's actually quite lucky because there are novels where you won't ever see its ending.