Rise of the ‘cyberstudent’
Consumption habit shift, tech development drive online Chinese consumers’ demand for quality paid knowledge
China’s paid knowledge sector embraced a boom in 2017 as an increasing number of consumers are willing to pay for digital content. Popular online platforms such as iGet and ximalaya.com attracted large user bases and harvested plenty of sales through launching services like audio books, celebrity courses and live videos last year. The continuous advancement of the internet and changes to Chinese consumers’ consumption habits are significantly contributing to the development of the sector. And experts say that such trends will continue to grow over the next three to five years if the quality of products can be guaranteed.
On the way from his home to work every day, Vincent Chen, a 20-something white-collar worker based in Beijing, indulges in listening to audio books that he bought from iGet, an online learning app launched in November 2015.
“People are too busy to read books or watch movies these days in big Chinese cities. Listening to such audio products is a causal way to learn while killing fragments of time,” Chen told the Global Times on Monday.
Besides iGet, Chen is also trying other similar online products that require fast payments on such platforms as Zhihu, Douban and ximalaya.com.
“I can listen to not only books, but also columns of famous experts and entrepreneurs on these platforms,” Chen said, adding that he bought a one-year economics course for 199 yuan ($31.5) on iGet three months ago and found some inspiration for his personal capital management.
With the advancement of the internet and upgrading of consumption in China, more and more consumers are willing to pay for content, and experts say that the domestic paid knowledge sector will continue to ride a boom in the next five years thanks to rising demand in the market.
Rising trend
On New Year’s Eve in 2017, three satellite TV channels based in East China’s Zhejiang Province and South China’s Guangdong Province presented their countdown parties with talks and speeches from intellectual elites, scenes which had seldom been seen on TV before.
In previous years, countdown parties were typically marked with dance routines and songs from superstars.
This new trend seems to have been sparked by the boom of the paid knowledge sector.
China’s paid knowledge industry advanced quickly in 2017 after it took off in 2016, Zhang Yi, CEO of iiMedia Research, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
For instance, Luo Zhenyu, founder of iGet, gave a live four-hour speech on a satellite TV channel based in Shenzhen, a city in Guangdong, on New Year’s Eve in 2016.
One hour before midnight, the TV station was at the top for audience ratings among other mainstream channels, media reports said.
In 2017, ximalaya.com reaped 196 million yuan in content trading during its “123 Knowledge Carnival”, which was held from December 1 to 3.
Also in 2017, the platform’s most popular product – Kevin Tsai’s 201 EQ classes – generated more than 10 million yuan in sales, according to media reports. Tsai is a popular TV show host and author from the island of Taiwan.
The number of registered users on iGet had exceeded 13 million by the end of 2017 and subscribers for Peking University professor Xue Zhaofeng’s economics course has so far attracted more than 200,000 users to the platform.
Paid knowledge products can now be found on the market in various forms like audio, photos, text, live videos and online Q&As.
Many traditional publishing agencies have also joined the trend by launching high-quality online products that charge fees.
With the improvement of Chinese consumers’ living quality and consumption abilities, an increasing number of people, especially young users, are willing to pay for content, Zhang said.
He added that the business pattern of paying for content is similar to the traditional model, that is, when commodities, particularly e-products, are sold on online platforms, apps and websites.
“At the very beginning, such online products are free of charge in a bid to attract network flow. After platforms have accumulated large user bases, they then tend to mark clearly the prices of their commodities,” said Li Yi, a senior research fellow at the Internet Research Center of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
Li told the Global Times on Monday that paying for content is a deal that a group of people who aim to share knowledge and valuable information make with consumers over periods of time.
Demand surge
The number of Chinese users who are willing to pay for content was forecast to reach 188 million by the end of 2017, according to an industry report released by iiMedia Research on December 5, 2017.
Experts say that the rising era of paid knowledge is set to coincide with the development of payment technology as the concept of quick payment is getting increasingly popular.
“The fast growth of the internet has given life to diverse demands among Chinese users, who are more likely to seek high-quality online products that require substantial production costs compared with other free products,” Zhang said.
The development of China’s paid knowledge sector has also been largely driven by the boom of the country’s mobile payment platforms, which offer convenience to users who purchase such e-products, Zhang noted.
Overseas consumers are less likely to pay for knowledge products in many foreign markets due to the underdeveloped mobile payment tools in those markets, according to Zhang.
“Chinese people in large cities now have less time, but they are now more able to afford such products,” a Beijing resident surnamed Tang told the Global Times on Tuesday.
“I bought 10 audio books on iGet, and each costs 4.99 yuan,” Tang said.
“Although I cannot finish listening to all e-books or courses I bought, I want to force myself to squeeze in some study time every day,” she said.
Industry prospect
About half of the users willing to pay for online content prefer financial and economic content while the other half want to learn knowledge and accumulate experience from the products, news site chinaxwcb.com said on Friday.
“What we aim to do is provide knowledge services,” which is a brand-new industry, in order to bring expensive products to the public via low prices, iGet founder Luo said in December during the 4th World Internet Conference held in Wuzhen, Zhejiang.
Experts are also optimistic about the prospect of the emerging sector thanks to increasing demand from domestic customers and the changing consumer habits of Chinese people.
“The sector will continue to see fast growth in the next three to five years,” Zhang said.
But Li expressed concerns over the quality of the products, saying platforms would benefit from beautifying them in a bid to make them more eye-catching.
Therefore, some content services will lose aspects of their original look that fail to satisfy the need to provide comprehensive knowledge to their users, especially to young people who could be lacking mature values.
“Quality matters if the sector wants to be able to maintain continuous fast growth in the future,” Zhang said.
Li also said that such content may harm the independent thinking abilities of young users because while using the platforms, they just “follow and listen to other people.”