Discussion New Webnovel membership system

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by fardhik39, Jan 25, 2019.

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  1. AuthorIsAwake

    AuthorIsAwake New Member

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    Thanks for those.

    Yeah, with those figures (of what has been posted and what I know) the only monthly price point that hits around 25 to 30usd a month is a cable tv subscription which doesnt rely on an ISP to actually "consume" for the user. And where I live (SEA), that pricing already includes HD Channels in the mix. If I were to go full SD Channels for Cable TV, the lowest I'd need to pay would be around 6 to 10usd a month.

    Basic Fibr Internet with 25mb up and 25mb down would run me about 35-40usd a month, depending on exchange rates.
    DSL with 1mb up and 5mb down (terrible connectivity even if wired), would run about 20usd. a month

    Again, the pricing I mentioned for the wired services (Cable and Internet) is for my side of the world. But I think it is close to average monthly expense for everyone else since we have one of the highest prices for internet speed compared to our "neighbors" here (country wise) of what we pay per mb.
     
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  2. Ruki

    Ruki Well-Known Member

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    Unlimited reading eh? How many chapters can one read per day or in a month? Will it be locked again if you don't renew your subscription? Then it's totally useless unless
     
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  3. TooLazyToThink

    TooLazyToThink Well-Known Member

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    $25 isn't bad for me.
     
  4. domonkazu

    domonkazu Active Member

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    more than spotify or netflix
     
  5. natalus

    natalus Well-Known Member

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    well. for me its very expensive. i will apply for elite members for once a year. maybe. after all. my daily reading without break is quite faet. i read harry potter volume 1 to 7 less than 3 days.
     
  6. GDLiZy

    GDLiZy Wise Deepsea Mermaid

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    The elite membership is cancelled now. :blobastonished:
     
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  7. Kuro_0ni

    Kuro_0ni Cocooned in a Life transition

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    Yup they ended the service last month, April will be the last month for current subscribers. You can refer to this thread

    Being that this subscription model version failed for Webnovels platform.

    They will probably modify the subscription service into another form.

    Platform currency, spirit stones are still their main bread and butter.

    My Theory:
    Its possible for them to create a tiered member system, based on the amount of spirit stones purchased. Giving more benefits to the reader that purchases stones vs the reader that doesn't purchase stones.
     
  8. myboijef

    myboijef New Member

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    trash. Kindle Unlimited is 10 bucks a month
     
  9. checkm8

    checkm8 Well-Known Member

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    I suspect the next iterations will be more along the lines of either:
    A. Bulk purchasing of novel chapters for a reduced cost (Similar to their weekly discounts)
    B. Individual subscriptions for ongoing novels rather than the unlimited subscription model. Think of it as their version of a Patreon model.

    Both models would likely appease the Authors who saw such drastic reductions in revenue.

    Another option would be to add money to the overall royalty payouts (from the increased ad-revenue for example) similar to how Amazon adds money to the KUP. But I just don't see Webnovel being willing to do that.

    Webnovel being willing to take less of a percentage of revenue to offset the author losses would also have worked, but I don't see that happening either. Likely, they were happy at a $24.99 subscription price point considering a minimum of $10 of every subscription went into their pocket leaving $14.99 in royalties (at most) to be spread among all the authors and translators(who earn royalties).

    In actuality, Webnovel was earning closer to $14-15 from most subscribers considering the vast majority of premium translations are without TL royalties where they only need to pay 30% of revenue to Chinese Authors(plus possibly the flat rate to TLs). And this doesn't even include the aforementioned increased Ad revenue from the higher number of Ad views.

    Personally, I think it would be best for Webnovel to just get rid of the whole pricing per wordcount and simply set flat rates for chapters. It could be done similar to the way Munpia prices chapters. Reducing the overall price per chapter most likely wouldn't hurt earnings either since stabilize pricing, especially at a lower price, would open the market up to more consumers who might currently be balking at the high/varied chapter pricing as it exists today.
     
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2019
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  10. Chupchup

    Chupchup Well-Known Member

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    Another option would be a Elite System for some novels. Probably the novels with lower number of readers. The novels that are popular would probably stay with the current system.
     
  11. DRASBERRY98

    DRASBERRY98 Active Member

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    Lower pricing would be better specially since you can find some of the same/ majority books for free at other book sites.
    Lowest price:$6.99/ month. B/c it’s not Kindle unlimited or scribd also monthly price should just be below $10 and u can do like a 3-30 day free trial. Since it is monthly and you want to make a profit it doesn’t have to be unlimited access maybe a certain number of books free access they choose which books they want free access to and book charges regular price when limit is reached

    $32/ 6 months subscription offer of 3-30 day free trial with certain number book access free they decide what books they want free and lower book charges when they read the book limit of the subscription.

    Max $46/ 1 year subscription
    unlimited access subscription
    - all books free access
    - double amount exp/ reward on tasks
    - exceeding reading time before reading reset gives you 1 extra esp /2 minute or 1extra spirit stone / minute
    - exceeding reading time can offer the chance to up reading time on your account (ie:) instead of reading max being 600min/10 ss max can exceed become whatever number account holder puts for themselves# goals and if you reach like 1000 min or more you start getting like 25-30 ss per reading time goal

    Ex: A person named Amy wants to purchase a 1 year subscription. Amy purchases the subscription and exceeds the reading time of 600 minutes. Amy is then asked by the Webnovel system if she would like to set her own maximum reading time/ goal for her to reach each week. Amy agrees to set her maximum reading time. Amy sets her reading time at 1200 minutes. So the reading time section on the Webnovel interface changes and adds more time to its timeline as well as ss at each time with 1000 minutes giving 25ss and 1200 giving 15ss. Amy is happy that she can set her own reading goals/ time with the chance of exceeding or minimizing the amount of reading time.

    - have regular list of tasks as well as new missions that can be completed (ex: gift ? People spirit stones, vote on ? Books with power stones, comment ? Times, read ? Chapter in ? Amount of time, read for ? Amount of time?
    - the ability to friend/follow other people on Webnovel
    - ability to message other people on Webnovel
    - ability to give spirit stones,power stones, energy stones as gift rather by buying and giving gift code but also to be able to use your currently owned stones and send how many you want
    - ability for author to editor communications where the author can send to an editor and the editor can edit and send it back to the author for posting

    The End of my great Webnovel Plan
     
  12. XlIl

    XlIl Well-Known Member

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    I only read the free chapters on Webnovel and then use another website to read the rest of the premium content for free. If only web novel didn’t become too greedy, I would still have watched ads to unlock chapters
     
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  13. Deleted member 25261

    Deleted member 25261 Guest

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    Its actually worse, they catch up you in the "unlimited acess" and its very hard to actually use the membershio. Things like that are really good models for the company cuz you are just throwing money, even without realize. When you are paying per novel or chapter, you actually feel that you are spending so much, unlike membership.
    Edit: If you think "hey, i'm paying by books, if i get membership, i'll would save money". Actually not, this is what they want you to think.
     
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