Why Chinese web users will pay for content that Westerners won’t, and the apps content creators can use to cash in
Apps such as De Dao make it easy for anyone to launch subscription channels, a business model that emerged from free mobile games where you can pay for an upgraded experience; on top of that, millions pay to watch live streams
And Li? Within months, he had close to 100,000 subscribers paying the equivalent of about US$30 a year – which works out to almost US$3 million in annual revenue.
It’s the kind of story that couldn’t happen in Western countries, where many people believe content should be free. In China, meanwhile, companies and individuals alike have managed to monetise smartphone apps, making money from news, entertainment and social media – by making people pay directly for it, instead of relying on advertisers. De Dao is just one in a whole economy of mobile apps where people such as Li Xiang can make real money.
“In China, we don’t really talk about advertising-supported models, whether it’s on PC or mobile,” says Jenny Lee, a venture capitalist at GGV Capital. “There are very few start-ups that actually grow very big on the back of advertising. There’s Baidu with search, but beyond search-based advertising, most of the large internet companies in China actually grew or monetised by charging the consumer directly.”
Recently [De Dao] opened a column by an economics professor from Peking university … He became the richest economics teacher in the world
De Dao, just a year old, already has seven million users. You can easily subscribe to channels with content on topics such as investing tips or “how to listen to classical music”, as well as books and magazines. Each channel costs the equivalent of about US$30 per year. It can curate content for you as well, and there’s even a portal to an e-commerce section that sells products such as books and high-end jewellery.
“Recently they opened a column by an economics professor from Peking University,” says Bob Xu Xiaoping, an early investor in De Dao and one of China’s most successful angel investors. “Guess what? He became the richest economics teacher in the world.”
Xu’s venture capital firm, ZhenFund, has made bets on hundreds of start-ups, some of which are now worth more than US$1 billion, or are publicly traded companies. He decided to back De Dao founder Luo Zhenyu, a former television producer, because he saw a go-getter who Xu says has created a transformative start-up.
Ant Financial enters Hong Kong market with AlipayHK mobile wallet
“This company created a revolution in China,” Xu says. “We call it zhi shi fu fei which, translated, [means] ‘knowledge payment’. You pay a fee to [get] knowledge.”
Paying for online content goes way beyond just education. Video live-streaming is also huge. All over China, millions of people watch anything from people singing or telling jokes to just going about their daily lives. Think of those random videos you can find on YouTube, but happening live. People can watch for free, but show the hosts their adoration by sending them virtual gifts, like a digital car or rose. The streamers can then exchange those gifts for cash.
The Chinese watch streams that others might find banal partly because they have fewer entertainment options, thanks to the government’s strict regulation of media. There are cultural and demographic forces at work, too. In China, tens of millions of young people have migrated to the large industrial cities. They live far away from their families. So video live-streaming in particular has become a form of digital companionship. The upshot is that thousands – maybe millions – of people are able to earn a living this way.
Lee of GGV says the business model emerged from the gaming world, where people can play for free but are charged for a better experience, such as upgrades that boost the player’s power.
“China pioneered the free-to-play model,” Lee says. “The whole ecosystem shifted to where the product has to be better designed to cater to the consumer because if the features aren’t appropriate, consumers won’t pay. That’s key.”
Snapchat copycat as Instagram now has face filters
In other words, mobile games made paying for content seem normal. Another factor driving this trend is the widespread adoption of mobile payments. For millions of people in China, a smartphone was their first internet-connected device. They may not have money for a computer or laptop, but companies like Xiaomi were selling phones at affordable prices. And because the country never had an established credit card system like in the US, China leapfrogged to mobile payments. That explains the rise of WeChat and Alipay, which connect your phone to your bank account.
While getting Americans to pay for online content will be a big lift, it’s starting to happen on the margins. A good example is Twitch, a site where you can watch people play video games.
Alipay steps up global expansion with major move into North America
Twitch has made it easier for the gamers that stream themselves – the content creators – to make money on the site with a feature called “cheering”. This lets fans buy animated emoticons and send them to their favourite video game stars. Twitch has also made it possible for its stars to collect subscription fees from their viewers.
Meanwhile, Apple’s iMessage has added stickers that you have to pay for, Facebook now lets users send payments and book rides in the messaging platform, and Snapchat has talked about adding premium filters that charge a fee.
