Qidian/Reptilian Overlords Propaganda

Then I'll probably stick to lurking on NUF then.

 

It actually is a huge deal for them. The starting price for China Literature's stock was HKD$55, which increased by 90% on the first day, which is extremely impressive for any company.

 

I can understand why it matters to them... Oh, and thanks for translating RPS, it's a good read.

 

they also tried to bring in 11.11 singles day, sorry but I don't give a crap about a made up Chinese shopping day
when 11 11 remembrance day in the UK or Veterans Day in the USA for people who give up their lives in war

 

I totally agree with that. I understand that for the Chinese WWI is unimportant; after all they only joined in late 1917 out of pure self-interest (And to compete with the Japanese who'd just taken the German base of Tsingtao in China). Also the KMT was in power then, so the CPC wouldn't exactly go out of it's way to let people celebrate an event related to those decadent rebels of Taiwan.

 

Pointless thread is pointless.
And if you know what an IPO is then you should be very afraid.
Given Chinese companies recent IPOs like Alibaba Group another juggernaut will be born.
And pay to read is all but guaranteed.
Wake up and smell the jade beauty's fart.

 

I know about IPO's, but as a stock market launch. Just thought it was some literary award in China, not a frigging stock launch. I also had no hope in regards to pay-to-read, I'm just leeching the free chapters and then probably switch to mtl (Painful but bearable to read) unless I see a major change in my income. :/

 

As other people have said, "First-Listed Company of Online Literature, Congratulations on China's Literature's IPO" is business news and it's kinda a big deal, not some dinky award. They basically raised millions or maybe hundreds of millions for their company. The people in Qidian who owned stock before the IPO made a killing and are rich now.

This does affect us readers since it means they have even more money to spend than before. Idk about paywall though.

 

I'm of the faction who'll drop QI when the paywall comes into play, mainly due to finances. Personally, I believe that as good bamboo capitalists, QI will put in a paywall regardless of stock market success in order to exploit us rich foolish foreigners just like they exploit the vast herds of readers they have in China.

 

Exploit is a strong word my friend. Authors need to get paid.
You won't work for free yourself.
There will always be options to earn virtual currency to buy chapters e.g. spirit stones when you log in.
That is why freemium and pay to win games are so successful

 

Joking about the exploit part, I'm just not happy about the way QI does things; for example the contracts (Unconfirmed: http://forum.novelupdates.com/threads/qi-contract.37773/) for editors/translators. The clauses about prior translations violating their intellectual rights/ causing Qidian losses, and the disparagement clause are just asking for hate in my view. There's no way there would be losses for Qidian because they didn't publish in English, and in fact fan translations allowed readers to enjoy the author's work in the first place. If there had been licensing in place for English translations in the first place, they would be justified. Also, I was under the impression Qidian (in China) was a pay only site?

 

CN Qidian is not a pay-only site. It's like Wuji said, it's a freemium model. If you only read like 1 or 2 novels, you can totally survive for free with the log-in rewards etc etc to earn the necessary virtual coins.

 

OK... Looking back at the Qidian 101 guide (via volare); "If the stories become popular, authors can become VIP or contracted authors, with future content available behind a paywall (typically taking place at 300,000-400,000 characters, or approximately 80-130 chapters). Readers are charged 3-5 points for every 1,000 characters (1 point = 1/100 CNY or RMB) depending on your membership status." I assume that all the chapters on QI are the first-rate one's...

 

First of all IPO = Initial Public Offering, which means they are saying you can buy their stock now, not an award. If you buy out all theri stock you can control Qidian! (unless they sell only non-voting shares)

Qidian is not the only publishing company in China. I think they are the biggest but not the only one.

Your logic of who is going to pay if you can find free translation is pretty flawed in itself. I will remind you those free translations do not have the license to the works they are translating. That is like saying who is going to pay for apples if you can just steal them for free from the store. (Of course copying digital content is not exactly the same as stealing, but your logic is pretty much the same). QI pays money to authors for the content and pays money for translating, obviously they are not doing a charity and expect to earn a profit.

That said, for the US market the ad revenue is probably more than enough not to implement a pay model like in China. But even if they do go to a paywall model, it is within their right to do so.

 

I believe half of the titles on CN Qi are not behind paywall. They have only so many first-rated authors after all. Yes, readers are charged points to read the pay-walled chapters but the points can be earned by doing everyday things like logging-in, commenting etc and not only through cash.

 

I am happy that someone verified it. The whole call the arms because it will no longer be free was just dumb.
Their PR has been shit but they are a necessary evil
Read the interviewers of their VIP authors, people with PhD switched to Qidian because it paid them more than regular jobs

 

You'd find a lot of people are apathetic towards wherever translation sites are legal or not. As to the licensing issue, well, I don't know of anyone other than WW who've paid for licenses (I assume there are others..?), and now they and QI aren't exactly bosom buddies... The whole trend of us reading these novels emerged thanks to people ILLEGALLY translating novels because there was no official entity/publishing house with proper licenses translating it (Obviously no market for it then). That small niche readership grew into what we have today (Like a vastly accelerated version of the rise of manga in the West), all without effort from Qidian. No investment, no loss. After all, you can't make a loss if you aren't even selling. The issue of intellectual property is arguable, but that's a legal nightmare to get into.

 

So why the hell does no one know? Is it a misconception on my part but wouldn't a company with experience in dealing with 60 million readers understand PR...? Or is it cultural differences coming into play? Maybe I'm being naive here.

 

Cause you need to be a member to get those privileges and although registration is free, it requires QQ account which I believe a lot of us here don't have.

 

Just to be clear, copyright infringement is not illegal. It is not a criminal offense but a civil offense.

The translations that made rise to what we have today was originally "fan translations". The whole point was not to make money but because of enjoyment of the content. With time, that market warped as money began to get involved. Just looking at WW patreon they have over 100k a year, that isn't even counting the individual translator patreons. So obviously a company like QI could no longer ignore the market and entered in full force.

That said, I will again remind you the purpose of FAN translations is just that, to fill in the void left by companies. QI entering our market should have technically been the end goal of most FAN translations. It was never meant to interfere. The issue that we have is simply a result of money.

This also happened in anime where fan translators stepped aside with Crunchyroll coming into the scene (there was just less money involved and the PR was by a western company so the transition was more smooth). Because the goal of fan translations is just that, promote the product at no personal gain.

Cultural difference, it is not uncommon for asian companies to struggle when entering western markets. This isn't limited to just chinese companies. JP and KR companies had such issues as well. (but of a different sort)