Back to 1997, I became the originator of online literature

Chapter 542 30% off?

When the concept of "gifted coins" first appeared in the original timeline, it was deeply hated by countless writers.

When this thing first appeared, people would usually come to novel websites with money to advertise, such as advertising for a certain game.

Advertising costs are generally quite high.

And what about online novel platforms?

They usually happily accept the advertising fee, and then use free coins to attract readers to click on the ad when advertising the game on the website.

Readers were naturally quite happy to receive the free coins.

Once you receive the free coins, go find books to read and use those coins to subscribe.

The author doesn't receive a single penny of the money from the free subscriptions.

It's like the author's work was being taken for free.

This sparked numerous complaints and protests from writers, and ultimately, some novel websites were forced to promise that subscriptions with free coins would also count as royalties.

Logically speaking, Cao Sheng, as a writer, shouldn't have given Zhu Weilian such advice.

Because it would harm his own interests.

However, he believes that in the early stages of paid reading, giving away coins can convert more readers who are used to reading free novels into paying readers.

Some readers who were originally hesitant about whether to spend money to read a certain novel may impulsively recharge and read the book when they see that there are free coins to be earned.

As one of the shareholders of Rongshuxia, he naturally believes that Rongshuxia's paid reading service can also be successful.

only……

He didn't expect Zhu Weilian to turn the gift of coins into a discount.

It was a little after 8 p.m. that evening.

The text on the large red banner at the top of Rongshuqian's homepage has changed; it now reads, "30% off Zhongyuan Yidianhui's brand new masterpiece, 'Cultivation Chat Group'!!!"

The banner also showed a top-up option.

Cao Sheng arrived at Rongshuxia around 11:40 p.m., intending to publish paid chapters after the function of listing them on the platform was enabled. When he saw the text on the banner, he was surprised and clicked on the recharge option, where a recharge window popped up.

充值窗口中，有几个选项：充值10元、20元、50元、100元、500元。

The words "30% off" appear in red at the top of the recharge window.

"This……"

Cao Sheng frowned.

She quickly relaxed, thinking: the discount effect should be about the same, but I should ask William Zhu how long this 30% off offer is going to last? We can't keep doing this forever.

The price is already very low at 2 cents per thousand words.

It's already very difficult to earn some royalties from subscriptions.

If the 30% discount continues, it won't just affect Rongshuxiao website and its writers, but also Qidian, and the entire industry will be severely impacted.

This discount, whether borne by the website or the author, is not a good thing.

If the website bears all the costs, its profits will be squeezed by more than half, and it may even lose money, because the website will cover the discounts, but it will have to pay the writers' fees for the actual subscriptions generated.

If the cost is borne by the writers, given that paid reading has only been around for a short time and almost all published works have few subscribers, most contracted writers struggle to earn even a few hundred yuan in royalties each month. If they also have to bear this additional cost of discounts, how can their income be expected to be decent?

Just then, his phone, which he had just silenced, rang.

The caller ID reads: Baojianfeng.

Cao Sheng picked up his phone and answered the call.

Bao Jianfeng's voice came through the phone, "President Cao! Rongshuxia announced a 30% discount tonight. With them doing this, your 'Cultivation Chat Group' really can't be listed on their website! Otherwise, readers can get a 30% discount there, but we don't have that discount here. Who would still read your book here? Don't you think that makes sense?"

Cao Sheng: "..."

I didn't expect Baojianfeng to call so late, just to talk about this.

Cao Sheng pondered for a moment before speaking: "What you said makes sense, but I have a contract with them for this book. If they decide to not put it on the shelves now, I can't explain it."

Bao Jianfeng was anxious. "But what they're doing will seriously affect your book's subscription on Qidian! This is unacceptable! Isn't this malicious competition? President Cao! Don't you own shares in their website? You can object! If all else fails, you can breach the contract, and I'll take the lawsuit against them! You don't need to be involved. If you lose the case, Qidian will pay the penalty for breach of contract for you. Is that alright?"

Qidian also has shares!

I am a major shareholder of Qidian. What difference does it make whether Qidian pays the breach of contract penalty or I pay it myself?
This thought flashed through Cao Sheng's mind.

Of course, he is a major shareholder of Qidian.

He is just a minor shareholder in Rongshuxia.

It's not hard for him to choose which side to stand on.

"Alright, I understand what you mean. I'll contact William Zhu right away and ask him how long this 30% discount will last. If it's less than a month, we can call it quits. If it's more than a month, I won't release any paid chapters of this book there tonight. Is that okay?"

Bao Jianfeng: "A month? No way! President Cao! A month is too long, seven days at most! Anything over seven days will have a huge impact on Qidian. I can treat seven days as a small trial of paid reading, but anything over that period is definitely malicious competition!"

Cao Sheng thought for a moment, then nodded, "Okay! I'll talk to General Manager Zhu."

call ended.

Cao Sheng held his phone for a moment, then dialed Zhu Weilian's number.

William Zhu: "Hey, Brother Cao? I've already made your new book available for purchase. Why are you calling now? Have you published the paid chapters yet?"

Cao Sheng: "Mr. Zhu! I'd like to ask, how long will this 30% discount last?"

William Zhu: "Uh, Brother Cao, what are you doing? Don't you usually manage our website?"

Cao Sheng: "Never mind that for now, just tell me, how long do you plan to keep this 30% discount going?"

William Zhu chuckled, "Let's try it for a month first and see how it goes! If it works well and our website can afford it, then we'll continue. I think a 30% discount would have many advantages and should attract a lot of readers to our site. What do you think?"

Cao Sheng remained silent.

The benefits are, of course, predictable.

If his novel "Cultivation Chat Group" hadn't been serialized simultaneously on Qidian and Rongshu, Zhu Weilian's actions wouldn't have been problematic.

But what he's doing now is directly affecting the subscription rate of his book on Qidian.com.

It will also affect the overall profitability of the starting point.

As a writer, it will affect his personal royalties.

As a major shareholder of Qidian, it will affect his year-end dividends.

If Qidian loses most of its readers to Rongshu because of this, and falls from its current position as the top player in the industry, the impact on Cao Sheng will be even greater.

When the original Qidian was sold to Tencent, Qidian's founding team and more than 100 top writers were poached in advance. At that time, Qidian, which was already severely damaged, was still sold for a high price of 800 million US dollars.

Qidian merged with some smaller websites to form Yuewen, and after its listing, its market value on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange once rose to nearly HK$100 billion.

Therefore, if Qidian declines as a result and can no longer become the industry leader like it was in the original timeline, and eventually go public, Cao Sheng's losses will be even more staggering.

Therefore, after hearing Zhu Weilian's relaxed words, Cao Sheng remained silent for a moment before saying in a deep voice, "No! Mr. Zhu, I just received a call from Qidian Baojianfeng. He strongly protested against your discounts..."

Before Cao Sheng could finish speaking, Zhu William chuckled and said, "He's protesting vehemently? We're giving our readers a discount, what's there for him to protest about? What right does he have to protest? We're not asking him to pay anything, so let him protest! Heh, as a competitor, his strong protest only proves that we're doing the right thing, right, Brother Cao?" Cao Sheng remained silent for a few seconds, then said indifferently, "President Zhu! He has every reason to protest."

"Why? What reason does he have to protest?"

William Zhu countered with a question.

Cao Sheng: "Because my new book is being serialized on both of your websites at the same time, and you're offering such a big discount here, what about Qidian? Will anyone still be reading my book there? This is directly affecting my book's subscriptions on Qidian. They're protesting your unfair competition and have strongly suggested that I break the contract and stop publishing paid chapters on your website."

William Zhu: "Huh? This... Brother Cao, you're not really going to agree to him, are you? You're a shareholder of our website! You absolutely can't agree to this request!"

Cao Sheng: "Seven days at most! Your 7% discount can only last for seven days at most, otherwise, I will have no choice but to breach the contract."

William Zhu: "What? Seven days? No! You're our shareholder, why did you agree to his request? Why?"

Cao Sheng smiled slightly and said calmly, "Mr. Zhu, you must know that I also have shares in Qidian, right? I'm not just a shareholder of your website!"

William Zhu: "..."

This time, William Zhu remained silent for a while before speaking again: "Alright! Since you've put it this way, what else can I say but agree? Seven days, right? Seven days it is! Is that alright?"

Cao Sheng felt a slight sense of relief.

He also didn't want to end up in breach of contract.

"can."

William Zhu: "Then hurry up and publish the paid chapter! We've already made it available for you for a while now, and many readers are waiting for you to publish the paid chapter!"

Cao Sheng: "Okay, I'll publish it right away."

call ended.

Cao Sheng logged into the author backend of Rongshu Xiao and released 11 paid chapters in one go, catching up with the progress on Qidian.

After posting, he picked up his phone and sent a message to Baojianfeng: "I have already talked to General Manager Zhu. The 30% discount will only last for 7 days. If they do not cancel the discount after 7 days, I will stop the serialization there."

Within two minutes of sending the message, Bao Jianfeng replied: "Okay! Thank you! Thank you, Mr. Cao!"

……

at the same time.

Magic City.

Banyan Tree Headquarters.

Tonight, a batch of works will be available at midnight, mainly because these are the first works from Rongshu Xiao to be available.

Therefore, all the staff here are working overtime tonight, including the boss, William Zhu.

At this moment, William Zhu sat in front of his computer in his office, his brows furrowed.

He had just ended a call with Cao Sheng.

Many of Cao Sheng's words still lingered in my mind, such as the protest at Qidian Baojian Peak and Cao Sheng's threat to breach the contract.

At this moment, he felt very uncomfortable.

Cao Sheng...

He was originally just a young writer he had high hopes for.

He sent Wang Jing to Huizhou to discuss copyright cooperation, and what happened? Wang Jing resigned and went to work for Cao Sheng.

He used his shares in Rongshuxiao to obtain the free serialization rights to Cao Sheng's 800 million-word work on Rongshuxiao. The result? As soon as the contract was completed, Cao Sheng took his new work to Qidian and quickly pulled Qidian, which had always been overshadowed by Rongshuxiao, to the top of the industry.

Now?

Cao Sheng actually dared to threaten Zhu Weilian with the serialization of a new book, forcing him to agree to cancel the 30% discount in 7 days.

"Raising a tiger will only bring trouble...raising a tiger will only bring trouble! Damn it!"

Zhu Weilian spat out these words through gritted teeth.

He now deeply regrets why he sent Wang Jing to seek cooperation with Cao Sheng back then.

Why help Cao Sheng serialize so many works? To help Cao Sheng rise to the top of the industry?
He regrets it.

However, he also knew that if he hadn't cooperated with Cao Sheng back then, Rongshuxia wouldn't have developed to its current state so quickly.

Banyan Tree was originally just a gathering place for literary youths.

Most of the short literary works published here are diaries, essays, poems, etc.

It was Cao Sheng who transformed Rongshuxia into a website for serializing a long novel.

Many of the popular classifications of banyan trees today were pioneered by Cao Sheng.

Many readers here were drawn by Cao Sheng's works.

Therefore, he had mixed feelings at the moment.

"A 30% discount... The strong protest from Baojian Peak shows that this measure hits the nail on the head. What the enemy opposes is precisely what we should insist on..."

William Zhu squinted and muttered to himself.

He still doesn't want to cancel the 30% discount.

We want to implement this measure long-term.

Even if this leads to the banyan tree not making money for a long time, he feels it's worth it as long as it can bring down the starting point and make it explode.

Once Banyan Tree Beef regains its leading position in the industry, will there still be any fear of not having opportunities to make money?
"But... Cao Sheng's threat..."

William Zhu frowned even more deeply.

He wasn't afraid of Sword Peak's protests; the more Sword Peak protested, the more excited he would become.

However, he was very afraid of Cao Sheng's threats.

Cao Sheng's new book, "Cultivation Chat Group," is currently enjoying immense popularity, a fact that is widely acknowledged in the industry, making it the undisputed number one hit.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have achieved the astonishing feat of breaking 10,000 initial subscriptions on Qidian.

Therefore, he really hopes that this book can continue to be serialized on Rongshu.

If you add a 30% discount, he can already foresee the resurgence of Banyan Tree.

But now Cao Sheng is not cooperating.

How to do?
Zhu Weilian frowned, pondering repeatedly what to do.
He didn't want to cancel the 30% discount promotion, but he also wanted "Cultivation Chat Group" to continue its serialization on Rongshu.com, but he couldn't think of a solution for the time being.

He didn't even dare to convene a meeting of all the editors to discuss and brainstorm ideas.

He was afraid that some of the editors might tip off Cao Sheng or Wang Jing.

After all, Cao Sheng is still a shareholder of Rongshuqian.

When Wang Jing first worked here, she was well-liked, and many of her former colleagues are still here.

(End of this chapter)