Can popular IPs continue to attract gold?, Perspective Chinese Online: One online article costs over a hundred yuan or more

In recent years, more and more people have become accustomed to reading online articles through platforms such as mobile apps. According to the "2022 Research Report on the Development of Chinese Online Literature" released by the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as of the end of 2022, the number of online literature users has reached 492 million, and the cumulative number of online literature writers has exceeded 22.78 million.

At the same time, piracy and high fees for some online articles often become the focus of attention. "Some online platforms have captured the reader's' upper hand 'mentality, with the most important being stuck at the end of the article. Instead, the article is filled with' watering 'plots." Speaking of their reading experience in recent years, a reader told reporters.

How expensive is it to read an online article? Is there a "pit" behind it? How is the survival status of online literature companies? According to public information, on January 21, 2015, Chinese Online went public on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's ChiNext board, becoming the "first digital publishing stock" in China. Taking Chinese Online as an example, the reporter paid attention.

Unknowingly spent hundreds of dollars? Journalist experience

At present, many people can accept paying to read online articles, but this may also become an expenditure that exceeds many people's expectations.

"Sometimes when you finish reading or see less exciting parts, you realize that you have already spent hundreds of dollars," Zhao Jing, a reader who describes ten years of experience reading online literature, told reporters.

In July of this year, "I can't finish reading a web article even after recharging 700 yuan" made it to the hot search and became a hot topic among netizens. A consumer has complained to the media that a child who has only been half a month old has renewed a fee of 700 yuan to read a certain novel, and it has been serialized for more than 3000 chapters and has not yet been completed.

What are the current payment methods for mainstream online platforms? Will online literature be more expensive than physical books? According to the data, 17K Novel Network was founded in 2006, formerly known as Together Reading Novel Network. It is an online reading website under the Chinese online platform that integrates creation and reading. The reporter had an experience with the platform and app.

The reporter found that "K coin" is a virtual currency circulating on the platform, with 1 yuan=100K coin. According to the recharge interface of the 17K Novel App, the app offers recharge options ranging from 8 yuan, 15 yuan, 40 yuan, 60 yuan, 100 yuan, and 1000 yuan.

In addition, the platform also offers options for "monthly membership" and "super membership". The former offers the privilege of "free membership library" and "20% off premium subscription", while the latter offers the privilege of "free all site works". "monthly membership" and "super membership" charge different fees based on the duration of activation.

Some readers believe that reading online literature is not as cost-effective as reading physical books, and reporters have also compared the prices of popular published online literature works with e-commerce platforms.

As of the reporter's press release, "Wind Rises Dragon City" ranks high on the total best-selling list of the 17K novel platform, with a total of 1505 chapters. Starting from chapter 98, it needs to be read for payment. The reporter had previously recharged 800K coins and found that the page showed that all paid chapters after subscription required 17154K coins. According to the prompt on the page "Regular members enjoy discounts", 13724K coins were actually paid after the discount. According to the conversion standard of "1 yuan=100K coins", reading all chapters requires a fee of over 100 yuan. From the page displayed on a certain e-commerce platform on September 5th, it can be seen that the physical book set was priced at over 200 yuan on that day.

Therefore, for this novel, online content is still cheaper than the physical version, but spending over a hundred yuan may exceed many people's concept of the cost of reading online content, and many of the best-selling novels on the platform are over ten million words. On the other hand, the platform's "monthly membership" and "super membership" settings also provide readers with more payment options.

"Winning IP" still needs market testing

Behind the increasing attention paid to the online literature industry in recent years, journalists have noticed that the performance of Chinese online has been relatively sluggish recently.

Data shows that in the first half of this year, Chinese Online achieved a revenue of 651 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34.54%; The net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was -37.0556 million yuan, compared to -60.5873 million yuan in the same period last year. According to its 2022 annual report, Chinese Online achieved a revenue of 1.18 billion yuan last year, a year-on-year decrease of 0.78%; The net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was RMB 362 million, a significant decrease from RMB 98.7915 million in 2021.

It is worth noting that on June 28th, Chinese Online announced that it plans to acquire 51.0414% equity of Beijing Hanmu Chunhua Animation Technology Co., Ltd. for RMB 138 million. The latter focuses on the "Luo Xiaohei" series IP, and its main business areas include animation dramas, animated films, peripheral licensing, and derivative sales.

According to Chinese online, the strategic acquisition of Hanmu Chunhua is an important measure for the company to deepen its strategic layout in the direction of "decisive IP". Through this acquisition, both parties will fully utilize their respective resource advantages and further stack and amplify the IP value.

In addition, on the evening of June 8th this year, Chinese Online also disclosed a plan to issue A-shares to specific targets for the year 2023. According to the plan, the total amount of funds raised from the issuance of stocks to specific targets is not more than 2.51 billion yuan, of which 1.553 billion yuan is planned to be invested in the IP content resource upgrading and construction project.

The reporter noticed that according to the information disclosed in the contingency plan, the gross profit margin of China Online's main business in 2020, 2021, and 2022 were 62.68%, 70.85%, and 49.89%, respectively, with significant fluctuations between years. The plan states that the main reason for the decrease in the gross profit margin of the company's main business in 2022 is the impact of a decrease in business orders and an increase in costs related to channels.

Looking ahead to the future, whether the "decisive IP" strategy of Chinese online can effectively boost the performance of listed companies still needs further testing over time. The reporter will continue to monitor.