In the era of mobile reading, online literature will break the model of selling by word

In the era of mobile Internet, only high-quality content can attract users' attention. Following movies, music, and games, online literature, which has been silent for many years, has once again attracted attention.

After more than ten years of development, online literature has grown from a hobby writing to a profession, and has now formed a very distinctive industry. This also means that the previous "selling by word" model of online literature has become a thing of the past. After the popularization of mobile reading, online literature urgently needs to create a new business ecology.

Online literature faces more difficulties in the era of mobile reading

The old online literature model was based on the PC reading model, but now it is the era of mobile reading. Data shows that there are 490 million active mobile reading users in my country, of which online novels account for 60% of all reading categories, and the usage rate of mobile online literature is 44.4%. Online literature has become a mainstream Internet application that is as important as online videos, online games, online shopping, and online payments.

With the popularization of mobile devices and the maturity of mobile payment methods, users can read anytime and anywhere. The mobile Internet has increased users' reading time and reading volume, and users' willingness to pay has increased. At the same time, the trend of users' online literature consumption shifting to mobile terminals is very obvious. These have magnified the value of a single user.

"However, the development of mobile reading has its own shortcomings," said Zhou Yun, editor-in-chief of Ali Literature. After the transition from the PC era to the mobile era, literary reading faces a more closed environment. On the positive side, it enhances the reading stickiness of users under a certain product; on the negative side, it also raises the threshold for user transfer, making it possible for content monopoly under strong products.

Under the old online literature model, the early exposure of works mainly relied on the recommended positions on PC websites and various rankings, but the effective exposure positions were few and far between and could be easily manipulated. Mobile terminals are constrained by screen limitations, platform recommendation resources are even more scarce, and recommendation rules are difficult to be transparent, which also provides convenient conditions for shady operations. Some authors who are eager for quick success and instant benefits also use various means to grab exposure opportunities on the platform through cheating methods such as brushing clicks and brushing rankings. It is difficult to ensure a fair competition environment for authors, and the selection mechanism for excellent works naturally has problems.

On the other hand, due to the pressure of generating revenue and other performance issues, the contract operation strategies of content platforms are becoming increasingly utilitarian. Those types of works that are popular on mobile terminals will continue to have stronger exposure opportunities than in the past PC online literature era. Some editors are also consciously guiding authors to imitate popular works in their creations. Ultimately, online literary works are becoming increasingly plot-based, and the quality of content continues to decline.

Generally speaking, the chances of online writers becoming famous with one work in the mobile reading era are very low. Both authors and works need a more standardized environment and display platform to achieve better development and exert greater commercial value.

It’s time to break the model of selling by word

The "selling by word" model used to be the main source of income for online literature writers, but in recent years, the IP integration and derivation of online literature has become an important part of the cultural industry chain. Online literature is the upstream of the entire pan-entertainment industry chain. In addition to directly generating value, its IP has a variety of copyright derivatives and secondary value realization capabilities.

For example, the recently popular movies "Fall in Love with You" and "Left Ear", as well as the upcoming "Ghost Blows Out the Light" and "Grave Robbers' Chronicles", regardless of how the movies and web dramas are adapted, the popularity accumulated by these novel IPs alone is enough to derive great value.

However, industry insiders revealed that in the old online literature model, due to the strong position of some platforms, many authors had no say in the distribution of copyright-derived benefits, and most of the income did not actually fall into the pockets of the authors. The strong platforms are used to absolutely controlling all copyrights of authors, which will eventually lead to the abnormal development of the online literature industry.

In this regard, Zhou Yun said: "The copyrights signed by Ali Literature are generally only for electronic copyrights, and we do not forcibly control other copyrights of the works. Unless the author is willing and Ali Literature pays the author a satisfactory price, we will not sign unequal contracts with the author such as commissioned creation, copyright transfer, and long-term contracts that bind the person." At the 2015 Strategic Release Conference held by Ali Literature, a new copyright cooperation policy was also launched, which is willing to give all copyright profits from the publication, animation adaptation, game adaptation, and film and television adaptation of the works to the partners.

It is understood that in terms of support for film and television adaptations, Ali Literature can reach in-depth cooperation with companies such as Ali Pictures, Light Media, and Huayi Brothers, while game adaptation resources include 9game, the second largest mobile online game joint operation platform in China.

In the field of online literature, Alibaba is not the only one that has made efforts. Tencent and Baidu have also made some moves recently, hoping to obtain more content resources from the source through online literature. In the era of mobile reading, if we want the online literature industry to continue to develop healthily, we must change the business model of "selling money by word", break the shackles of "unfair terms", and create a more open business ecosystem.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.