I do have a lot of insight into the word paywall. One of my most intuitive experiences, when I came here, is: Everything costs money to read on American websites! To see a movie, you need to pay; To use a screenwriting site, you need to pay; To use an app, you only get a seven-day free trial. After that, you need to sign up, log in, fill in your profile, and pay for it monthly or annually. This is not the case in China. There are paid websites on the Internet in China, but we can always find another free channel. Well, to put it bluntly, piracy. Maybe it’s because Chinese people don’t have a strong sense of copyright, but also because China’s per capita income is not that high. I’m not proud of it, but people take it for granted, so what can I do?
In this environment, I am used to getting free things online. I think the things that are Shared online are the things that are available to everyone, free and common. If there is a charge for these things, you might as well sell them in a store. What shocked me most was that here in the United States, e-books even demanded money! If I went to school in China and chose the electronic version of my textbook, it would be free, many “good samaritans” would take photos or scan copies of their books and distribute them online for free. You might question the clarity of the scan, It doesn’t matter, if this guy’s is not clear, find another guy’s. Anyway, there are tons of good samaritans who are offering these things for free online. You know, China has a huge population, so there are proportionally more such good samaritans.
All right, back to the main question. I made it clear that I’m not a fan of the paywall. If the content that needs to be paid for is a game or a new movie, I might still be willing to pay, but I can’t imagine that I would be willing to pay to read the news. First of all, the news is relatively dull, and I’m not particularly eager to read the news. Secondly, if it is essential news, there must be several news agencies covering it. I can even search for them on Google or see them on Chinese websites. I don’t have to waste time signing up for this news platform and paying to subscribe to it.
If a news site asks readers to pay for it as soon as they enter, I think most readers will opt-out. At the very least, you should give us enough time to get to know your site and be attracted to it. In this case, most media outlets have figured out a way to use timeliness as a basis for adjusting paywalls, known as “time wall”.
According to a recent study, the international news media association (INMA) showed that 39% of the worldwide national media choose to pay for a digital content reading model. Among them, 47% have set up a freemium model paywall, which most of the contents are open to all readers; a small number of exclusive content is for subscribers only. Besides, there are many models, such as paid access to e-replica, membership/ production, metered model, hard paywall, and hybrid model.
For Chinese users, the mode of limited-time free and pre-viewing by members of video websites has long been familiar. The combination of similar ideas and news timeliness constitutes a new way of playing paywall: time wall. That is a situation where I’m willing to pay, and for videos or movies, limited-time free works great for me! If there is no ” limited-time free” option, I may not be interested in seeing the film, but after knowing there is this option, everyone will have a kind of “If there are bargains, why not” idea. When you are drawn to movies, especially long TV series, then time is up. What a wet blanket! But in order to leave no suspense, like most people, I willingly choose to pay.
Sweden’s MittMedia increases subscriber conversions by 20% with a ‘time wall’
I love what you mentioned about free movies! Sometimes streaming services I pay for do not offer the movie I would like to see and I have been tempted to use sites that do not require me to pay to watch the film. I found it interesting that “good samaritans” take pictures of their text books for others to use. If one’s images are not good you look for another. I found that very cool and interesting the difference in your experience with pay walls and mine. Very cool!