p.s. The Wattpad of China (Qidian) was purchased for $800 million by Tencent. Qidian is able to attract top tier authors because authors can make really good living writing web novels. Even becoming millionaire.
http://publishingperspectives.com/20...e-web-authors/
Quote:
In fact, there are now so many web-writers in China (in the millions) that they are now “ranked,” both by their earnings and number of fans.
On the lowest level is the ordinary writer, also “known as poor guy (or poor guy writer).” They have a limited number of fans, and their work is seldom recommended to others. Their annual income is around 1,000 yuan.
Next up are the Xiaoshen (low rank god) writers with a fan base of more than 100,000 and annual earnings of more than 100,000 yuan ($16,100).
One step further up the ladder are the dashen (super god) class of writers with earnings of more than 1 million yuan ($161,200) with fans counted in the millions as well.
At the very top of the tier are the 20-30 web writers known as platinum authors or zhigaoshen (the Supreme God) class of writers. The 2014 Chinese web-writers list ranks Tangjiasanshao first, with earnings of 50 million yuan (around $8.06 million) per year from royalties, while second and third on the list both raked in more than 25 million yuan ($4.03 million) each.
|
Wattpad business model is ad revenue.
Qidian business model is
) Subscription (similar to Kindle Unlimited but much cheaper, think $1 a month)
2) Donation (similar to Patreon for those that want to directly support their fav authors)
3) Ad revenue
Tencent purchased Qidian because it's the biggest literature web site in China with hundreds of millions of readers. It has a profitable business. It has top tier authors writing for it.
Wattpad just has a large audience but nothing else. Until Wattpad can pay its most popular authors with full-time wages, it won't attract top tier authors. Without top tier authors, it won't challenge Amazon or the Publishers anytime soon.
In China, web novels is now the future of publishing. Maybe it is already the present since it is extremely popular with the young generation. Older generation still read print of course.