The scale of the online literature market has reached 9 billion yuan, but there is a hidden "capital restraint" behind the success

333 million online literature users have achieved an online literature market of 9 billion yuan; 40 major online literature websites provide more than 1400 million works and have updates with an average daily volume of more than 150 million words; and the highest royalty income of online writers is as high as 122 million yuan.

original title:

< strong > 20 years after the second crisis hit

< strong > counterattacked into a "wonder of world culture" < / strong >

< strong > after the second crisis hit < / strong >

333 million online literature users achieved 9 billion yuan of online literature market. 40 major online literature websites offer more than 1400 million works and have updates with an average daily volume of more than 150 million words. The highest royalty income for online writers is as high as 122 million yuan. The first China "Network Literature +" Conference, which ended recently, has handed in a dazzling transcript. In the eyes of industry insiders, Chinese online literature can be called the "four cultural wonders of the world" with American Hollywood blockbusters, Japanese anime and Korean idol dramas.

after 20 years, the counterattack of Chinese network literature has been blocked for a long time. If "stigmatization" and "disparagement" is the first development crisis of the Internet article industry, then the current capital restraint can be regarded as the second development crisis.

< strong > 333 million readers < / strong >

< strong > spawned the 9 billion Big Market < / strong >

at the first Chinese "Network Literature +" Conference, Zhang Hongsen, deputy director of the State Administration of Press, publication, Radio, Film and Television, defined network literature as an organic part of socialist literature and art. "the total number of works is more than 14 million, while a large number of adapted film and television, animation and game works are also deeply loved by audiences and users. Those network literature that gallop magnificent imagination, pour out romantic feelings, and burst out youthful vitality have enriched the form of network literature and art, promoted the coordinated development of related industries, and better met the diversified, multi-level, and multi-faceted spiritual and cultural needs of the people. "

the reporter learned from the China "Network Literature +" conference that by the end of 2016, the number of users of China's network literature had reached 333 million, and the size of China's network literature market had reached 9 billion yuan.

opened the 2017 ranking of online novel writers, whose highest royalty income has exceeded 100 million yuan. Among the top three writers on the list, "Tang Jia San Shao" ranks first with a royalty of 122 million yuan, second with "Bombyx mori Potato" with a royalty of 60 million yuan, and "I eat Tomato" with a royalty of 50 million yuan. Such royalty income not only makes network literature writers into the industrial ecological circle built with network literature as the core, but also attracts practitioners to enter the creation of original literature and its derivative fields.

Film and television, games, animation, audiobooks and derivatives adapted from online novels have caught fire in the cultural and entertainment market. It not only stands in the category of network literature itself, but also opens up the connection between the digital publishing industry, establishes a new form of entertainment consumption, and deepens the deep cross-integration of network literature and other cultural and entertainment industries such as games, film and television, and derives a pan-entertainment culture industry with rich connotation. As Zhang Hongsen said, the "+" sign behind the network literature gives the network literature greater responsibility, more solemn mission and more possibilities.

in the reader experience area of the first China online Literature + Conference, 65 enterprises focus on high-quality IP content and integrate online literature with different industries such as games, animation, film and television, and become a bright spot. China Literature Group, Chinese online, Ali Literature, Palm Science and Technology, Dianzhong Technology, Phoenix Literature, etc., have brought a total of 16 IP works. After a day of fierce competition, eight works, including "falling in Love with Garfield", "Jiuding Ji" and "Chengxijin", signed letters of intent to cooperate on the spot.

in the virtual reality (VR) experience area of "Internet Literature Adventure", film and television works with high market recognition, such as "A Thousand bones of Flower" and "three generations and Ten Mile Peach Blossom", are processed by VR or 3D technology to show the audience a different world of online literature and film and television adaptation.

in the "Network Literature + Animation" theme area, "Coser" has become the most eye-catching part. "full-time Master" in the Jun Mo smile, cold smoke soft, "prosperous Imperial Concubine" in the Mu Qianxue, has become the object of the audience and book fans competing for photos.

< strong > from content outbreaks to user outbreaks < / strong >

< strong > to value explosions < / strong >

China Literature Group CEO Wu Wenhui said: today, Chinese online literature can be called the "four cultural wonders of the world" with American Hollywood blockbusters, Japanese anime, and Korean idol dramas.

in recent years, China's online literature industry, which has a large number of global users, has begun to march into the "super IP", aiming at the development of the whole industry chain, opening up the production, incubation, operation and distribution of content, and linking with film and television, games, animation and publishing to form a closed loop, making "China's" become "world's".

however, many people, including Wu Wenhui, know very well that this hot land, with a volume of nearly 10 billion yuan and an average annual growth rate of 20%, was barren 20 years ago.

on Christmas Day in 1997, William Zhu, a Chinese-American, set up the literature home page under the Banyan Tree in Shanghai, so popular literature has a display platform for original writing. Before that, literary youth could only write novels and essays into stationery and diaries. This year is considered to be the first year of Chinese network literature.

in 1998, the serialization of "the first intimate contact" by Taiwan writer "riffraff Tsai" on the Internet made online literature begin to enter the eyes of young people. Since then, the book has released millions of copies in Taiwan and the mainland, reflecting the huge market value of online literature.

this gust of wind has driven the unconscious writing of Chinese netizens. They write for life, write about their feelings, and then put the article under the banyan tree for more netizens to see. "at that time, people began to have a habit of writing words on the Internet." Yu Qian, CEO of Ali literature, combs the evolution of network literature.

within three years, 100000 netizens realized the "literary dream" of publishing articles through the Internet, and works such as "messages of Life" and "AIDS Notes" that aroused public opinion around 2000 were first published on the Internet.

however, as the writing community continues to operate, some online literature activists begin to think: the market needs good online literature, if there is no money, who will write a good article? If there is no good article, who will read it?

in 2003, the paid reading system of online literature was officially launched. The original intention of starting payment is the expectation of high-quality online literature: to return and retain high-quality content writers through more remuneration.

the Chinese website, which is the starting point of the interest community, launched the "micro-payment" model, that is, the VIP member reading system: the platform charges readers by chapter and then shares with the writer.

at that time, Wu Wenhui was also active in the online literature world, and he was one of the founders of the starting point Chinese network. Fortunately, the "micro-payment" of the starting point Chinese website has withstood the test of the market as soon as it is launched.

A year later, QQ Chinese has become the first domestic original literature portal to become one of the top 100 in the world. In the same year, Shanda bought Qiqian.com for US $2 million, and Shanda Literature was born.

"We believe that the period from 1997 to 2007 belongs to the PC era of online literature, which brings about the explosion of content." Ali literature CEO Li Zhiqian said.

with the success of the commercialization of online literature and a series of innovations in the business model of online literature, it not only gives vitality to the website and writers, but also reconstructs the relationship between readers and authors. so that the "fan economy" can be precipitated and accumulated rapidly.

"it can be said that after the content broke out, the 10 years from 2007 to 2017 was the era of user explosion of online literature. At the same time, the content of network literature has entered the era of mobile Internet. " Li Zhiqian said.

Chen Qirong, director of the online Literature Committee of the Chinese Writers Association, marked another point in time-October 2014. Since then, Chinese network literature has entered a golden period of prosperity and development. Before that, we talked more about the grassroots, popularity and autonomy of network literature. After that, we pay more attention to the mainstream, boutique and classicalization of network literature. "

if October 2014 is a major time point in the field of online literature, then 2015 can be said to be an inflection point that can not be ignored in the field of online literature. In this year, the concept of IP was officially promoted. In the past two years, many popular TV dramas such as "Nirvana in Fire", "startling step by step" and "three generations of Peach Blossom" all come from network literature, and the value of network literature as the source of IP is becoming more and more optimistic.

"whether a story is attractive or not, whether an IP has derivative value, can be developed into movies and TV dramas, games, animation, etc., can be verified at the lowest cost and most quickly in the form of network literature." Li Zhiqian said.

as the upstream of film, television and games, the classic and popular type of network literature will profoundly affect the orientation and trend of film and television works in the next two or three years. As Wu Wenhui said, the industry has changed from business to ecology.

people in the industry believe that in 2017, China will begin a new era of online literature-the era of integration. This era not only connects the content explosion, the user explosion, but also ushered in the value explosion.

< strong > the disease of "large quantity and low quality" has not healed < / strong >

< strong > the pain of capital restraint also has hidden worries behind < / strong >

prosperity. One voice believes that if "stigmatization" and "derogation" is the first development crisis faced by online literature in the past 20 years, then the current capital restraint can be regarded as the second development crisis.

Xia lie, vice chairman of the Zhejiang Network Writers Association, believes that the capital focusing on network literature has played a strong role in the past five or six years, making this brand-new "cake" unique to China gain a leapfrog profit return. "however, the development of the whole industry chain and the implementation of the copyright operation mode have slowly returned from the proliferation of piracy to the fight against piracy, even using the wealth list of online literature to create a model, but also masked the writers' difficulty in standing out, physical and mental exhaustion, singleness of writing mode and homogenization of content, all thanks to capital."

in the view of some senior readers of network literature, network literature has more ways of realization and capital favor, at the same time, its content is also hurt by its commercial penetration. Under the dominant pattern of several online literature enterprises, the shackles and realization channels of the payment system make online literature a profitable business.

netizens such as "TeenieWendy" and other online literature enthusiasts reflect that in order to accumulate the amount of reading in order to get money in return, some works are written longer and longer, and novels with millions of words are common, making online literature become "irrigation literature."

Log in and browse the APP or website of online literature. Works suspected of plagiarism, works that tamper with historical facts, and works of "three low and three vulgarity" are common. The titles of some works are required to be "designed" according to the audience's psychology of curiosity, so there are stereotyped and endless "overbearing presidents" crossing "sadistic articles", and even some signing platforms will force authors to add pornographic clips to attract readers.

Zhang Yijun, director of the Digital Publishing Department of the State Administration of Press, publication, Radio, Film and Television, said in an interview that from the perspective of content, there is still a considerable degree of "large quantity and low quality" in China's online literature. "the phenomena of attaching importance to the market and neglecting the value orientation, individual talk over the weight of the times, and other phenomena have not been fundamentally reversed; plagiarism and imitation, a thousand pieces of one cavity, will inevitably fall into a rut of routines; entertainment first, shallow and impetuous, it is difficult to get rid of the strange circle of click-through rate."

in addition, from the perspective of industry, under the pressure of readers, some works are keen on grandstanding and eye-catching, and the phenomenon of treating vulgarity as popularity and desire as hope still exists. Especially with the quantitative incentive mechanism, network literature began to mass production, assembly work, a large number of writers, ghostwriters, pick-up knight-errant appeared, so that the original carrying concentration and original spirit of literature, become the products on the assembly line.

Yue Guan, a writer of online literature such as "returning to the Ming Dynasty to be a King", believes that the low threshold of online literature is both an advantage and a disadvantage. "the low threshold for creation is a double-edged sword. Because of it, a large number of literature lovers picked up their pens and changed from a bystander to a grower of this big garden, making it more and more prosperous and stronger. However, such creative conditions also make the 'content' mud and sand, and even the phenomenon of Bad money drives out good. "

people in the industry also pointed out that from a market point of view, the market rules and regulatory means of online literature are not perfect, and the punishment measures are not strong enough, leading to the spread of plagiarism and the prevalence of copyright infringement and pirate. it has an impact on the reading and consumption of excellent original works.

people in literary circles such as Xia lie said that at present, the number of digital readers in China has exceeded that of paper reading. as a developing literature, network literature is rich in infinite possibilities and is expected to become the mainstream of literature in the future. therefore, we should shoulder the mission and responsibility of "improving quality" and "quality".

in order to solve the common phenomenon of "plateau" shortage and "peak" in online works, Chen Qirong believes that online literature has ushered in a critical period of "upgrading", and it is appropriate to take a long-term view, be tolerant, and adopt symptomatic measures. To create excellent works of network literature, we should focus on guiding network writers to set up literary ideals, enhance their ideological realm, pay attention to realistic themes, and enhance their consciousness and innovative ability.

Edit: mary