By Bailing Liu
Introduction
Some time ago in China, changes of the content of the author’s contract in China Literature led to protests from the authors who believed the new contract seriously harms their interests. Many signed authors stopped updating in order to convey their dissatisfaction with the new contract, which recorded huge hits on the Internet. China Literature, the most famous Chinese network literature group consisting of several online literature websites, schemes to take ownership of the literary work, for instance, China Literature owns all kinds of copyright and all profits from copyright without the permission of the author. However, as for a popular work, published and morphed into a film or television work can earn more money than traditional VIP charge on website. Nowadays, there are more outlets for net literature than just charging for online reading and publishing, so major capital is very optimistic about the industry and actively participates in it. Since Qidian Chinese Website launched subscription service of online literature in 2003, network literature has started rapid development in China. According to Online Literature Development Report (2019), there are nearly 0.45 billion online literature users in China. In this article, I will briefly introduce China’s network literature from four parts: the development process of Chinese network literature, the distribution of China network literature group camp, the operation mode of literary websites and the related national policy for network literature.
Part one: the development process of Chinese network literature
In China, network literature germinated from 1995 to 2002 when a small number of netizens voluntarily uploaded original novels and other types of literary works on online novel forum such as Smth BBS, Under the Banyan Tree and Ikong. During the period, China’s Internet was in its infancy with few users. As the fast development of the Internet in China, the network literature website has also entered its explosive phase from 2003 to 2012. Representative network websites are Qidian, 17K, Jinjiang, Xiaoxiang, Zongheng, iReader and so on. Among them, Qidian pioneered the pay-pre-view model in 2013 and then other networks websites have followed this model. Since 2013, the development of online literature websites have entered stable period in the meanwhile capital has gradually infiltrated this industry, like Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu. What’s more, network literature has been discovered more values: intellectual property (IP) industry chain which involves the fields of film and television, audio, network game and animation.
Part two: the distribution of China’s network literature group camp
There are five main China’s network literature group camps: Chinese Literature, ChineseAll, Baidu Literature, AlibabaLiterature and iReader. ChineseAll and iReader are enterprises focusing on literature and publication while Chinese Literature, Baidu Literature and Alibaba Literature are separate branches of Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba. Among them, the institution which controls seven literary websites is a giant in the online literature industry. Qidian Chinese Website, Chuangshi Chinese Website and Jinjiang Literature Website are most popular network websites in Chinese Literature who own high user coverage. According to the China Network Literature Market Quarterly Monitoring Report (2019), Qidian ranked first in the industry with a user coverage of 31.9%, Chuangshi ranked second with 16.8%, and Jinjiang ranked fourth with 12%. In addition, 17K Novel Website which ranked third in the industry with a user coverage of 24.5% is owned by ChineseAll. Moreover, Zongheng Chinese Website which ranked eighth in the industry in terms of user coverage, belongs to Baidu Literature.
Part three: the operation mode of literary websites
I would like to write this part from four perspectives: the classification of network literature, profit model, the audience composition and the author composition. Generally speaking, network literature refers to online novel. Network literature can be roughly divided into male gaze and female gaze. Male/female gaze does not mean that the protagonists in novels are male/female, but that the readers of such novels are mostly male/female. Furthermore, this kind of classification tendency exists in literary websites. For example, Qidian Chinese Literature is considered as male gaze network website because the vast majority of its readers are male and Jinjiang Literature Website is thought as female gaze literary website as the overwhelming majority of its users are female. What’s more, in the classification of feelings, the online novel normally covers boys and girls’ love, boys and boys’ love and non-couple. In the classification of subjects, it includes history, urban, military, martial art, fantasy, reality, time travel, reborn and so on. Among them, modern romantic fiction is the most popular category of network literature for all age readers (Online Literature Development Report, 2019).
In terms of profit model of literary websites, VIP charge and reader reward are the traditional and most important way. In addition, film and television works, audio, games and anime adaptations and book publishing can also generate profit. According to Online Literature Development Report (2018), online literature companies were dominated by subscription revenue which accounted for 85.3% and followed by copyright operating revenue which doubled from 2017 to 11.1%. What’s more, copyright operation will become a new revenue growth point for the main business of enterprises with the deepening and development of IP adaptation of network literature. As for signed authors, they can not only enjoy royalties but also gain shared revenue from VIP charge and reader reward. Different literary websites enact different proportion of shared revenue of VIP charge and reader reward; for instance, signed up authors share 50% subscription fee and all reader reward at Qidian and 60% VIP charge and 50% reader reward at Jinjiang.
Nowadays, network literature is very popular among the young generation in China. Online Literature Development Report (2019) shows that China had approximately 0.45 billion online literature users in 2019 and more than 70% of those born after 1990. In 2018 there were 0.43 billion network literature users in China and 37.7% of those lived in third-tier cities and below. In addition, the proportion of online literature readers with high school education and below was 53%, and 65.1% of them had low per capita income due to the large number of student users (Online Literature Development Report, 2018). In fact, not only online literature users but also authors are getting younger. Online Literature Development Report (2018) points out that the number of online literature creators in 2018 China reached 17.55 million of which 0.61 million were signed authors. What’s more, 50.6% of those born after 1990 in terms of age distribution, and 56.6% of those were male and 43.4% of them were female. As for educational level, the author’s academic qualifications mainly focused on college majors and bachelor’s degree, among which the proportion with bachelor’s degree was the highest — 35.8%. Furthermore, 61.9% of contracted authors were part-time writers and only 15.4% of them earned more than 5000 yuan per month for writing. However, the average daily writing time of network literature writers is almost 5 hours and the average daily updating amount is about 2500 words, which consumes a lot of energy of the authors. It is possibly that due to their passion for writing and the desire to earn extra money more people choose to become part-time signed author.
Part four: the related national policy for network literature
In term of online literature, Chinese government encourages diversification and limits vulgarization. For example, no sex or violence contents are allowed in novels published on literary websites. Moreover, a series of targeted measures have been put forward in perfecting laws and regulations, guiding the creation of high-quality literature, improving the evolutionary environment, cracking down on infringement and piracy, and advocating innovation and creation. Online Literature Development Report (2018) notes that under the party and state policy guidance, the network literature will become more prominent orientation guide, pay more attention to the quality of work, strengthen the supervision and management, establish and improve the mechanism of rewards and punishments. What’s more, it will pay more attention to the application of new technologies, promote network literature and the depth of the new technology, new media, so as to promote the development of high quality of the whole industry. In addition, the competent administrative department for publication will further strengthen the lead of topic selection guide, constantly promote the overall quality of writing network literature to broadening the content creation boundary, promote the development of content change and diversification of subjects by focusing on developing realistic subject, patriotic theme, professional knowledge and so on. For example, Jinjiang is holding a science and technology to revitalize the nation-wide writing contest under the call of related policies. Actually, Chinese online literature has been exported in recent years, covering Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, North America, Europe and other countries. In 2018, the number of Chinese online literature works exported overseas reached 11,168 (Online Literature Development Report, 2018).
Conclusion
To sum up, it is obvious to see that China’s network literature has been rapidly developed these years with the fast development of Internet. Thanks to the development of the Internet, electronic reading came into being. The mobile web allows people to read on their phones. Compared to paper reading, electronic reading has its own advantages: convenient, cheap, selective, etc. More people are attracted by e-reading, and then more people choose to be network literature writer, leading to a boom in the industry. During the period, the industry contributes to economic value in the country and more choices in people’s career without the limitation of educational level. Form VIP charge to IP industry chain, network literature has been exploring more possibilities. In my opinion, this is an industry with great bright future and it will continue to discover various ways with the innovation of technology in the future.
Reference list:
China Network Literature Market Quarterly Monitoring Report (2019). From: <https://wenku.baidu.com/view/d9468cd478563c1ec5da50e2524de518974bd38a.html>
Online Literature Development Report (2018). From: <http://culture.people.com.cn/n1/2019/0810/c429145-31287235.html>
Online Literature Development Report (2019). From: <http://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2020/0220/c404027-31595926.html>
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