I like Webnovel

I won’t yuck your yum, this is purely my own experience and opinion.

Overall, I have mixed feeling about webnovel. I have to thank them for introducing me to two of my favourite novel, Lord of the mysteries and my house of horrors. There are several other novels that I also followed whenever I have spare SS, eg Omniscient reader.

I also liked their old netflix subscription fees as it allowed me to read as much novel as I wished and that I did. For that two months I devoured as much as time allows me to. I know they stopped it as they said it didn’t benefit the authors (Personally, I kinda want to know what is the split % between the author, translator and the platform between the diff business model.) but I thought had they continued on and goes towards twitch route they would have earned more imho as during those time I always gift SS to the novels I enjoyed.

On the other hand, their questionable business practices(privileged chapter still confuses the hell out of me), controversies and their customer services are rather off putting. The latter sometime ... rather ..hostile? I remember emailing them to ask about my account only to receive a curt email. I had also seen some of their unprofessional responses in their forum which I think drive many people away to aggregator site.

Though, I do like their recent improved UI and features such as page color.. Their apps is rather frustrating to use, buggy even and has been so for the longest time. There was one bug that zeroed all my ss.. and that was when I uninstalled the app.

I have nothing against webnovel but I do not wish to support them either.. This might sound blasphemic, but as long as there are other alternative to read at or until they improve their app/has business model that I am keen on supporting such as the old netflix/patreon model I would not reinstall the app.

 

There are stories that I really love on Webnovel and I will continue reading them. But I completely understand and support people in the pay scheme frustration. The privilege system is idiotic. It's a paywall to a paywall and webnovel should not be surprised that their initial lack of clarity on the system got them backlash.
I'm not against them making money. The translations are usually high in quality and regular. I appreciate that which is why I do give them some money. But this was such a bad idea and is going to cost them in the long run.

 

In a perfect world, everything will work but I am not too worried. With all the competition from Tapread and the other website @Wu Jizun Webnovel will not be able to rest on their laurels

 

Well, competition will always benefit the customers. But at the same time it might kill off the smaller groups or one man army who are just doing it purely out of enjoyment. Only time will tell.

 

About the privileged system, this is how I see it.
you get to watch 1 episode of a TV Show every week with your monthly cable subscription
but if you want to watch next week's episode. You get charged extra.
Doesn't seem so crazy to me. When Smallville was on air, I would have paid extra to watch the next week's episode.
People just don't see the same value in novels since they are used to getting it for free

Well, you have to adapt or die. That is how life works

 

True if you are doing it for a living but maybe slightly differs in motivation if your just in it for the fun. But I digress.

Regarding the privilege system, I have to say that it’s very confusing, not marketed well neither it is explained well. With such a layered system, they either should have a page explaining how it works or give members a free trial worth of x days.

Still I feel it doesn’t work as well as tv show that you used in your example. TV subscriptions works since if you don’t subscribe you won’t be able to watch it. End of story. Then say, as your example, you can add on, pay x dollar to unlock it early. But the main point is still to subscribe to watch.

In webnovel, from my superficial understanding, if you sub you get to read a chapter per day without paying anymore... until when your subscription ended and should you wish to reread you have to pay again.

Now the dilemma occurs since there is micro transactions option. Reader can read the novel without subscribing as long as you have ss. Since there is such option, now it will be an option A vs option B scenario. What will give customer the maximum benefit according to their personal interest.

Some people has calculated that subscribing will end up to be more expensive than just simply unlocking chapter a day plus if you pay ss per chapter you get to keep the chapter for good. So that is a minus for the subscription model.

Next it will be impulse buying. Wanting to quickly unlock next chapters is a marketing technique banking on curiosity but an emotional marketing would not work if the downside is overridden by another emotion, in this case the feeling of unfairness or in webnovel case, since it wasn’t explained well, some might feel like they have been conned upon realising they had to unlock the chapter again. Once a customer feeling has turned sour they might not return.. ever. That is a double strike imho for the subscription model.

I think it’s not the value for novel, more like web novel. Sadly a lot of the quality of web novels are not the highest you can wish for. A lot of the stories are disposable and ripped off from one another. Out of 1000, you might get one masterpiece. Most of the time people read web novel because it’s short and good time waster, something they could easily pick up and let go in between activities or on the go.

In comparison, tv or novel often needs a higher time investment. Thus the difference in expectation and value.
(I think it’s closer to how people view casual game and hardcore game.)

Anyway, with such a huge backlash from their community, I think they will come up with better marketing model in the future. And with so many other platforms now, I am sure one will come up with an amazing model that others will quickly adapt

 

I love Webnovel, they brought in all kinds of novels for me to read. Although I don't agree with their past business practice, I'll say that I don't think they have done any bad things in recent years. No one translated their novels anymore so no translation steals. Overall an improvement in their rep I guess.

About them being greedy, that's fine. People are greedy, and cooperation is made to satisfy this desire. Don't want to pay? Go read something else then. The value of money varied from person to person. Some might think their price is high while others wouldn't bat their eyes.

However, people who shit on Webnovel as if they are the saints that come to cleanse the world with their righteousness while praising the way of piracy, these are the true problem, and they are also massively hypocritical. Not only are you slowly killing the novels you read by not supporting the translators, but you are also killing other groups of translators outside of Webnovel by supporting the pirate sites.

 

Y'know? Aside from the fact that, instead of pirating, many of us have given up on Chinese webnovels altogether because QI basically poisoned the water:
- When you support Webnovel, you don't support translators. You support a company.
- When the translations were thriving even before QI shoved itself in, it means that even if Webnovel disappeared this service will still be needed and others will be happy to provide...
- When the translation community has become toxic because Webnovel smelled money and forcefully turned a people-first hobby industry into a slash and burn cash grab...

...I really don't mind pointing out Webnovel's unsavory practices over and over again.

 

I would argue the same for TV, I find the quality to be poor. That is why I mostly consume Asian TV shows at least for the novelty.
I stopped paying for Netflix and the last subscription I had was Dramafever.
Webnovel tried the subscription model, it doesnt work for content that you have to create daily.
Things like software that you create once and can milk with a monthly subscription for years are not the same as novels where you pay authors, pay translators and editors and proofreaders for each new chapter every single day..

 

My main problem with them is how they entered the whole translation community. It was through deceit and backstabbing. I don't know about you, but that is pretty rude. Maybe it's common place for them in their country to do business with deceit and backstabbing. Hey, their modern novels have friggen every MC and friends starting up a business every second. Guess they need deceit and backstabbing to make it. Morally and on a personal level, I don't like the company because of that.

As for the people who work there? That's none of my business. It's their lively hood and they can do what they want even if they don't care about what people think. Can't do anything about that. The contract is pretty slave like, so their fate is sealed.

 

Comments are meant to be bias because its peoples opinions, ofc their bias. Polls are suppose to gather the thoughts of people on a subject. It needs to actual have opinion from both side or else its a pointless poll duh...

Second shady behavior does not equal wanting money. Wanting money is fine, telling your readers one thing than doing another is complete bullshit. There nothing wrong with having to pay for chapter, I never said it was an issue.

There a few novels on webnovel that has good translation, that's coming from someone who can actually read the raws. My grammar standards aren't high (my mind auto correct amazingly well when I read fast and I read fast) but there plenty of novels that actually make me stop for a good few seconds going huh? That's ignoring the accuracy of the translation itself.

When people literally stops translating rather than sell or work for Webnovel I think that say a lot about their practices.

 

The same happened with Yen Press and Crunchyroll at the start.
Unless you use a Viki model, you end up like dramafever
You shut up shop.
Do you think we can get something like Viki for novels?

Also why are so many keep saying webnovel translations are generally good?
There are not lol

 

I feel like I have pretty low standards in term of translation mostly coz I read fast and auto correct super hard in my mind (coz these novels filled with so much filler there no need to spend the effort to read every single detail most of the time) so at long as there aren't like really jarring mistakes I'm w/e.

But even for me a lot of the stuff on webnovel is almost unreadable even by my low standards. Again this is ignoring the actual accuracy of the translation itself. I checked some raws with the translation and its even worse if you count that part in. I remember a few novels that I was interested in I ended up just going to read the raw even though it take me more effort and time coz it be less confusing.

 

Basically, ignore novels translated by Nyoi Boy Studio eg Super Gene
Males become females, no surprise their translations are amongst the fastest.
I barely understand Chinese and can spot their errors.

 

You don't need to look down on anyone. You can choose to look down on them. You can also choose to just disagree with them. But trying to justify your sense of superiority over a group or individual by saying that other people need to look down on them is just shameful. But that's just my opinion.

 

And my opinion is you need to look down on them, NEED TO. It needs to be something shameful, it needs to be something horrible, so much so that it deters people from buying it, because loot boxes are evil. Every tactic used in loot boxes are tactics taken from gambling, except while gambling is for adults, loot boxes can be bought by children. Loot boxes have done real harm to people, especially those that are young. It is literally training and priming a young generation with gambling habits and gambling addictions. They change the currency you are gambling so there is a disconnect between how much you are actually spending and how much each loot box is. They change the odds of getting the really good items so you're forced to buy more in order to get it. They change the game mechanics to make loot boxes more important and necessary. And they even add graphics, sounds, and animations to make it so that when you do get the item, it is all the more euphoric. People should look down on gamers who buy loot boxes because that is supporting loot boxes. They should look down on it the same way you would look down on a person selling alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs to children.

 

All are discussing Chinese novels while QI is now humming while digging on Korean.

 

Nobody is saying Qidian doesn't have to have micro-transactions, but Qidian's model is too extreme. There are games out there that have done micro-transaction right, and guess what they are thriving. Then there are games that get bought by EA games and guess what THEY GET SHUT DOWN! EA Games IS THE GAME KILLER (you can do a quick google to see a list of the publishers they've killed)! Qidian's entire model is to count on the addictive and alluring nature of their models to draw people in before forcing them to pay incrementally increasing prices in order to read it. It is the exact same as the predatory mobile games that harshly slow progression in a game unless one buys micro-transactions to speed things up to a normal pace. The problem with Qidian though is that once a novel becomes unprofitable or the translations bail, the novel dies and the people who invested time and money to read the novel are sorry out of luck. If it wasn't in Qidian's hands, then at least the novel could be picked up by other translators, but no, Qidian is the Novel Killer.

And this wouldn't seem so bad under other circumstances, but the way Qidian did it was they came into a free fan-based translation community, DMCA anyone who does not submit, and then slap on micro-transaction fees while telling the community "no, we won't do that". The exact same thing happened when Crunchyroll entered the anime scene, so it wasn't much of a surprise for me or anyone else who is familiar with that, but even Crunchyroll doesn't have a ludicrous money-making scheme as Qidian. Heck, QIDIAN CHINA doesn't even have the same ludicrous "privilege" money-making scheme that Qidian has.

And yes, you're right, books are a luxury not a right, but they're also just books. Worse yet, they are not even physical books, but digital books that can be viewed by others without any sort of manufacturing cost aside from that initial translation process. As someone has previously made the calculations before, these novels can cost more than ~$250 to read the novel up to date, and I'm sure many of us here are avid readers that don't just read one series...so it's very possible for many of us to read more than the cost of an iPhone in a single year. But hey, at least an iPhone is a luxurious piece of overpriced tech that can last 1-2 years and be resold after. As for these Qidian chapters, the "experience" isn't worth the price for me, so I'll pass.

 

Your understanding of cost is wrong. I request that you educate yourself.
It doesn't make sense at all.
And yet again this community underestimates the value of books.
Books can positively impact your mental health.
Escaping to another world and enjoying a rush without needing hard drugs.
Let's not kid ourselves, authors, content creators are severely underpaid.
Any idiot on here parrots like they can easily create a world that sucks you in.
https://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2...chinese-web-novels-curing-his-addiction-drugs

I see nothing wrong with the Privilege system. It doesn't affect the schedule for the most part.

Only a fool believed that the community was free.
It was fans stealing and sharing content without permission.

 

There are obviously costs associated with running servers and the website, and I believe the translators are paid on a similar system as the original translators, a share profit method, but the main point is that they're a non-manufacturing type of company and don't have production costs similar to let's say an iPhone. And we're not underestimating the value of books, we are a community based on books. I'm sure we're all aware of how great these books are as a hobby, they keep us away from drugs, they let us learn of other cultures and expand our imagination, and can positively impact our mental health - but the bottom line is that for most of us, it is a hobby. Don't try to sell it as a miracle drug, don't try to sell it as a cultivation technique that will grant us immortality, it is a hobby. Mind you, it is a decently good hobby that (is sometimes) cheap and expensive compared to...movies? Video games? Sports?

The flip side to what you said is that these books are poorly translated mind-numbing stories with no real depth in character, plot, or morals, rather it is just a time-wasting, wish-fulfilling hobby like anime and video games. The time spent reading webnovels could have been spent educating yourself on something like technology or medicine. It could have been spent learning and creating paintings or learning to make your own furniture. Are you telling me that nature walks never cured someone's depression? That sports never kept people away from cocaine? Most normal hobbies are beneficial to people (and no I don't think clubbing, doing drugs, or hiring prostitutes as normal).

Everyone has their own way to unwind, and novels is our way to unwind, but at the end of the day it is just that - a hobby, a book. We are not talking about Shakespeare here, we are not talking about Harry Potter, or Lord of the Rings, we are talking about massed-produced webnovels. The point of these novels are not to expand our mind or educate us, it's to help us relax and enjoy, thus it should have a price that is appropriate to this. No one should be breaking the bank trying to view and read these books, and it definitely shouldn't cost me a switch or a ps4 just to read all of the chapters for a series. My coworkers don't pay $200 bucks to watch the 3rd season of stranger things. They don't pay $400 bucks to see all of Orange is the New Black. Sure, webnovels is a more niche market so it won't have as many viewers, but a chapter or even a book doesn't cost as much as an episode of these shows to produce. It also has a decent enough popularity to let these series reach tens of (if not hundreds of) thousands of views.

I'm not sure how well authors or content creators are being paid, but from what I hear the ones in China are not doing too bad, although their work hours are rough due to the nature of webnovels. But you need to remember that these are works that are already produced in China and are being translated over here (I'm not sure if the original authors even get a cut from Qidian). It should also be noted that the reason why some authors and content creators are so underpaid is BECAUSE of companies like Qidian, companies that "provide the platform" but claims the copyright of the author's materials. Besides that, better quality translations do deserve better pay, but are we really getting that with Qidian? And the community really was free before Qidian entered the market. It was done by fans for fans. Sure they were "stealing and sharing content without permission", but it was content that wasn't available here in the west, nor were there any plans to have it available. There were no copyrighted works that could replace that, nor a company producing the same material. You weren't detracting or impacting the original market in any way except - once Qidian found out it was popular here they jumped over here to make bank. Now it is stealing because Qidian owns the copyright to these novels, but it doesn't mean we have to be happy about it.

I forget the drug name, but there was an anti-cancer drug in the US that was not produced in the US but was produced overseas. Due to the rarity of this type of cancer, the US government provided the drug FOR FREE to the US citizens that suffered from this type of cancer, because it wasn't readily available in the US. Guess what, a pharmaceutical company found out about this, created a very similar drug to the pre-existing one, and claimed orphan-status on it. This means that the once free drug is now no longer allowed in America, and the people suffering from this type of cancer must pay for the orphan-status drug (I forget how much, but it was something like 300k). This is essentially what Qidian is doing, there was a pre-existing free system involved before, the company found out about it and now came over here to make bank. It wouldn't be a problem if the drug that was free cost a reasonable price like a few dozen or even a few hundred bucks, but guess what - companies are not known to be compassionate. They have one obligation and that is to their stock-holders. That is why they'll use predatory micro-transaction practices like loot boxes and privilege systems, because they'll do anything to make more money.

"But Vudoodude, you're comparing webnovels to life-saving drugs", yes I am. But as you said before, these books have a positive impact on people's mental health. It cured a man's cocaine addiction! To the point where the man "kept reading and totally forgot to eat". This shows how addictive and catchy these novels can be. It just goes to show how one can't stop reading once they start because they just have to know how the next chapter goes...so barring these chapters behind paywalls which incrementally increase in price the further you go is...predatory in nature. They are designed not so that the company can remain sustainable, they are designed so that a company can remain profitable, massively profitable, because once again, the company's only obligation is to their stock-holders. Due tot he addictive nature of these stories, they can charge a premium (sorry, privilege), and they can charge whatever the hell they want - because they have the monopoly and anyone else is just stealing.

Don't think for a moment that Qidian implements these systems to benefit the novel community, because that is not their goal. Their only goal is to make a profit year over year to show to their investors that it is a worthwhile and lucrative investment. And hey, if they just so happen to crash or kill this market, what do they care? They still got 3 billion people in China who reads their stuff. We're just the disposable market.