AUGUST 2017 FORBES ASIA | 25The industry is nevertheless vibrant and promising because
its nature lies within the “safe zone,” according to Huang. Not
only is the text easier to review compared with, for example,
live-streaming services—which have been heavily blasted by the
government this year—but also online literature tends to stay
away from controversial subjects.
Chinese online literature has been popular for a while, but
only recently has it become profitable. In the IPO filing, China
Literature posted its first net profit of $4.49 million in 2016. It all
began in 2003 when Qidian.com, a brand under China Litera-
ture’s wing today, rolled out the country’s first online-reading pay-
ment scheme. Under the system, readers can pay to become VIPs
and unlock the most up-to-date chapters. With the profit, ChinaLiterature distributes considerable contribution fees to its writ-
ers, amounting to $147 million in 2016, as stated in the IPO docu-
ment. This no doubt improves the quality of writing, says Shao.
Chinese online fantasies are also going global. The over-
seas market has mushroomed since 2015, led primarily by two
translated sites, Wuxia World and Gravity Tales. The number
of monthly active users on these sites has climbed to 4 million.
Readers are from more than 100 countries, with North Amer-
icans accounting for one third of that number, Shao wrote in a
recent paper.
Says Shao: “America has Hollywood. Japan has animation.
Korea has TV drama. In the future, China will have online
literature.” F“I go to Chinese online
literature for imagination,
fun and freedom.”ZHANG PENG/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES