Shanda Literature Mobile business has doubts, relying on operators behind hidden dangers

After a year, the resumption of the listing of the grand literature produced a new earnings. Among them, the mobile reading business grew rapidly, the 2011 wireless business revenue reached 174 million yuan, a large increase of 188.2%. In 2009, the income was only 5.763 million yuan, and the 2010 value was 60.415 million yuan.

These mobile revenues from Shanda literature come mainly from the operational partitioning of copyrighted content offered to mobile operators ' reading bases. Data from Shanda Literature: As of the end of 2011, the total number of visitors to its content since the operation of the mobile reading base 115 million, the total number of users in 2011 68 million, total paid users 21 million, monthly page view of 1.6 billion.

According to the mobile list, Shanda literature has become the biggest winner of mobile phone reading base, in the top ten of its original best-selling list accounted for 60%, in the original best-selling total list of the top 100 accounted for 50%, of which "Dou breaking the Sky" and "very pure very ambiguous" respectively ranked first and second. Shanda Literature Vice President Liu Qiang said, Shanda literature accounted for the entire mobile phone reading income of more than 50%, each major list accounted for more than 60%, has provided mobile phone reading base 60% content, China Mobile mobile phone reading base is the largest paid content provider.

But Shanda literature needs to keep a close eye on the surging tide of smartphone popularity, which could bring a new spike to Shanda's literature and potentially overwhelm its already-large mobile-reading business.

operator variables

A large publishing house, the digital rights owner, said the Shanda literature business was selling well in the mobile reading base because its copyright content was in line with the readership of the mobile reading base.

The content resources of Shanda literature are mainly various kinds of fantasy network novels, and the main users of mobile reading base are "small income and low working life" of the three low people, mobile phones become their most important form of entertainment, they through a monthly way in the reading novel. By contrast, most of the books of traditional serious publishing houses have been sold poorly at mobile reading bases.

But Shanda's mobile business is currently dependent on mobile operators, but it may become a potential threat to its future. Several digital publishers have confirmed to reporters that since the second half of last year, the domestic publishing industry has begun to rumors that mobile phone reading base may be rid of other CP, its own to operate digital copyright.

"Operators have begun to investigate the matter, but it depends on whether they are determined to do so." "The digital rights director of a large publishing house pointed out to reporters.

At present, mobile and grand such CP is 64 divided, Shanda and the author 55 or 64, planing to all kinds of expenses, the author of the grand literature can be divided into the total income of 11% to 13%, if the move skip grand literature directly with the author contract, the author's income will be straight up to 40%, This will greatly enhance the enthusiasm of content producers.

"If you move your mind to do the content yourself, there will be a large number of authors moving." "The digital rights owner of a large publishing house points out that the mobile reading base has a huge user base and a mature billing channel, and it gives the author a significant benefit."

Policy adjustments from mobile seem to be the biggest threat to the mobile business of Shanda literature. This has not happened in the history of this case. A few years ago, Sichuan Mobile data division, the former general manager of China Wireless Music Operations Center General manager Lixiangdong with money absconded, Mobile began to its music base SPCP vigorously reorganization, at that time a large number of companies rely on music base to get rich.

Tao, an adviser to the chief telecommunications officer at Nomura, said to reporters: In recent years, operators have been re-examining their base business, there are two trends worth paying attention to: "The first is that operators want to get right up; the second is that operators want to unify the management of the country." ”

But many people in the industry also questioned whether the operators have the ability to organize the network writers who scattered the folk like Shanda literature.

First of all, operators to manage their own content, the need to form a large team to audit the content of copyright contracts and other matters, this is not the operator is good at. Second, move to do this thing, will touch too many people's interests, because there are a large number of middlemen rely on the operator's mobile phone reading base to survive, and the author of the book to the reading base to get a good recommendation location, the middleman is very dependent.

Tao of Nomura's comprehensive research also believes that the operating content is not good for domestic operators, because of institutional reasons, operators are difficult to have Internet companies as strong market competitiveness.

At present, the grand literature has been in the monopoly position in the network literature content. Previously, the perfect time and space has invested in the establishment of vertical and horizontal Chinese network, and tried to dig away a lot of literary writers, but did not constitute a substantial threat to the grand literature.

The problem of Homeopathy

On the other hand, the mobile Internet environment has undergone drastic changes in the process of suspending the listing of Shanda literature and restarting the market. Since the second half of last year, operators have pushed the thousand-dollar smartphone, and China's smartphone phase-out function has outpaced expectations.

The rapid popularity of smartphones poses a serious threat to operators ' own mobile value-added services. In the past, consumers were more reliant on carrier services, and now it is convenient to download rich reading content via smartphones. In Europe, America and Japan, the popularity of smartphones has greatly impacted the operators ' own value-added services. In fact, the operator's reading base business has slowed down since the second half of last year, according to Digital rights director of a publishing house that works with mobile-phone-reading bases.

As the largest content provider of mobile phone reading base, Shanda literature can also feel the threat, the huge revenue from operators, whether it can keep on is a grand literature need to think about. In this respect, Shanda Literature said: they have increased the operation of smartphone clients, and in the Apple iOS system and Google's Android system to launch their own "cloud bookstore" client products. Shanda literature wrote in the prospectus: companies want to increase the distribution of their books.

But Shanda literature also faces some new challenges, such as the mature billing system for mobile-phone-reading bases, and the habit of paying for smart-phone users needs to be nurtured again.

The reporter looked at the Apple App Store's ranking record, "The Cloud Bookstore" in the Apple App Store income list ranked highest in the 100th place (February 22, 2012). According to this ranking, Shanda literature is still not high in the App Store. In the Android market, where fees are scarce, it is more difficult to rely on content fees.

In addition, the biggest obstacle to making money out of the smartphone is piracy. At the moment, both the App Store and the Android harsh are considered a new haven for pirated electronic books, and users can download a variety of books without spending a penny on content-rich pirated apps, so it's really hard for content to make a lot of money by charging.

Earlier, the copyright party, including Shanda literature, has repeatedly negotiated with Apple, some authors and publishers have even begun to sue Apple, but with little success, some of the domestic writers and publishers on Apple's lawsuit, most of the last to no avail.

Shanda literature points out that they are actively exploring new models of profitability, such as making e-books free, charging through ad zones, "like video sites", making piracy no longer valuable.

However, the popularity of smart phones to the grand literature brings a potential benefit is: to enhance the level of readers. At present, in the grand "cloud bookstore" iphone client sold the best several books are "Jinling 13 Chai" "1988: I want to talk to the world," 20 years old must understand a little bit of economics "" Step by Step "" Zeng Guofan "and so on, these books and the grand literary tradition of the network of literary works have a big difference.

There is a number of publishers to evaluate the way: Shanda Literature and mobile cooperation is quite somewhat like the lack of profit mode Sina Sohu NetEase and other portals. At that time, the Mobile Dream Web service launched by the company made these portals receive much-needed revenue to help them through difficult times and finally transition. Today, several big portals are already very small in their reliance on operators.