https://acts.webnovel.com/2017/59195029/index.html
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In 2016, China Readings shared over hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties with our writers. We are looking forward to the rapid growth that the webnovel translation market will be able to achieve just as the original webnovel market achieved. （http://www.donews.com/news/detail/4/2945961.html）
As Qidian International, incubating and developing the market will be always our first priority rather than profit gaining. We plan to invest over 10 million dollars in next few years to build a better ecosystem for all webnovel translators and editors.
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Tencent bought Qidian for around $800 million back in late 2014.
It is now expanding internationally.
Their business model in China is quite interesting. Readers read on the web or the app. First 80-120 chapters are free. Each chapter (about 2500 English words) after that is about $0.02. Authors get 70%. There is also tipping/reward the author function.
Right now, they are focusing on translations but it is assumed that English originals will be on there in the near future. After all, there is no translation cost when it come to English originals. They could attract a lot of top web authors on Wattpad etc...
http://publishingperspectives.com/20...e-web-authors/
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Rewarding Your Favorite Writers
Most websites also include a "reward function," which allows readers to award their favorite authors money or "props" which they can exchange for cash.
Some sites also encourage what is called "fan economy" through monthly rankings of popular web-writers, determined by readers’ votes. The wrinkle to this is that readers pay to vote, and the more they pay, the higher the ranking for their favorite author.
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.
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The translators are mostly from USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan etc.. They are "fan" translators. Readers who are fans of the novels as it gained popularity in the West. Translation is not their full-time job. More like a part-time job, something they do on the side for 6-10 hours a week.
They are paid $40 per chapter (2500 English words). It takes about 2 hours to translate a chapter so about $20 per hour pay rate. Translators also get money (tip/reward/donation) from readers through Patreon/Paypal so they could potentially earn a lot more than $20 per hour.
If it's professional translators, the cost would be prohibitive. They wouldn't expand into English language if it cost something like $250 to translate 2500 words. I read that professional translators charge about $0.10 per word so 2500 English words chapter would cost $250. Using fan translations, they are able to cut the cost down to where they might be able to make a go at it.