In this era of information abundance, reliable channels of information have become an important asset for people to acquire knowledge. Attracted by the combination of authoritative, credible resources and convenient online access, numerous people have been enhancing their skill sets by paying for knowledge online.
According to the Analysis Report on the Operation and User Behavior Survey of Paid Knowledge Market in China in 2020 by iiMedia Research, a world-renowned third-party data mining and analysis organization for new economic industries, the Chinese online paid knowledge market has been on the rise since 2016, with the market scale reaching RMB 39.2 billion in 2020 and expected to hit RMB 67.5 billion in 2021.
Visitors enjoy listening to audio readings on headphones at Ximalaya’s listening library at Shanghai Book Fair on August 14, 2019.
An Alignment of Platforms and Users
“Free time after work has been greatly reduced, and it is difficult to study systematically like I did back in school days. But I always feel like I’m living in an era where I must never stop learning,” said Zhao, who has been working in Beijing for two years. “I wasn’t aware of the online subscription-based courses initially, but later when I looked through Zhihu (China’s Quora), I found that some complete answers were behind a paywall. Allured by the free content, I began paying and eventually got used to it. I bought some online courses in topics that interested me on Zhihu Live, a platform that provides many efficient lectures given by experts in various fields, and I can also learn anywhere I am,” said Zhao.
Like Zhihu Live, many subscription-based knowledge platforms arose across the digital landscape. Their great user experience and flourishing user community have fostered the development of the market, attracting substantial numbers of users such as Zhao.
“On the one hand, Zhihu has attracted many users who are obsessed with studying and enhancing their knowledge, they are also prone to accepting the idea of paying for acquiring that knowledge,” said Qin Yazhou, editor-in-chief of Zhihu. “On the other hand, Zhihu has also gathered a number of influential and creative respondents offering high-quality answers worth paying for. They are more likely to become producers of high-quality articles in various fields, which increases user engagement.”
The various forms of subscription-based knowledge educational content, such as text, graphics, audio, video, and livestreams have been aligned with the users’ acquisition habits in this fragmented, digital era. “As the first platform developed upon an audio and pan-knowledge content payment model, we focus on a business ecosystem based on audio content,” said Yu Jianjun, creator and CEO of Ximalaya, Chinese audio sharing and social networking service. He also said that utilizing the concomitant nature of audio programming to develop a knowledge delivery service is the key for Ximalaya to gain a foothold in the industry.
The increased scale of the paywalled knowledge market is also in line with the desire for improvement. “Facing gaps in the professional capacity and skills in workplaces, young adults feel a strong need to expand their sphere of knowledge. Their appetite for consumption and thirst for knowledge have driven the rapid growth of paid knowledge platforms,” said Wang Weijia, a researcher at the School of Journalism and Communication of Peking University.
“As knowledge renewal is accelerating, many people are worried about lagging behind, so they now also harbor a strong desire to enhance their repertoire of knowledge,” said Fu Qiang, an associate professor of the Department of Strategy and Policy, Business School of National University of Singapore. “In addition, with the upgraded level of consumption in Chinese society, people’s cultural demands have also increased. More and more people are willing to buy intangible, products,” said Fu.
Visitors are experiencing paywalled knowledge projects at the Capital Cultural and Technological Integration Development Achievement Exhibition at the 22th China Beijing International Hi-tech Expo on October 25, 2019.
High-Quality Content Buttresses the Industry
The appeal of a platform helps to attract plenty of users, but its sustainable development depends on its capacity to provide high-quality content to feed users’ demand for knowledge.
“A new modal might be fresh for the people,” said Lei, a student at the Beijing Institute of Technology. “But for a time, there will be challenges to provide fresh, valuable content, as clickbait articles attract payment but offer little value. Therefore, those platforms must ensure that they can provide quality content and maintain the trust of users,” Lei added. Fu Qiang believes that the paywalled knowledge market has become more selective and sensitive regarding the content, which has led to a higher barrier to entry, resource intensive content production, and fast pace of development.
In order to create and acquire more high-quality product offerings, all platforms are in fierce competition. “In 2020, the number of types of Ximalaya’s products increased from 328 to 393, adding a wide range of new fields, such as two-dimensional games, lectures, and scientific history,” said Yu.
The effect of the industry’s expansion is directly reflected on income. During the “123 Knowledge Festival” held by Ximalaya at the end of last year, the total amount of consumption exceeded RMB 1.08 billion and the proportion of first-time paying users exceeded 26 percent.
As the largest Q&A online community, Zhihu continues to encourage respondents to write more high-quality articles and integrate it with the payment model, so as to provide effective answers to the users who are willing to study the specific field in detail. “As an ‘answer market’, we believe that life is like a sea that goes up and down, and there is no fixed answer. From this perspective, people’s understanding of the periphery of knowledge is continuously extending. On the Zhihu app, there are scientists who explain quantum entanglement in detail, but also common people who give answers to help young adults deal with their emotional confusion. To meet users’ demand of knowledge, we will also actively introduce more original content. Meanwhile, we will strictly supervise its quality and pay special attention to professionalism. Only if the content is qualified will users pay for it,” said Qin.
All the platforms are also trying to tap into exclusive resources. For instance, Zhihu cooperated with Tony Buzan, the inventor of mind maps and master of memory, to open a video course, which has a high rating of 7.8 and continues to attract more users.
High-quality content is the common pursuit for platform development and users’ improvement, as well as a new avenue for the development of public culture and the education sector. “In general, the current pay-for-knowledge industry has a limited impact on people’s improvement in terms of cultural study and education. In fact, it depends on the national education system and public mechanism, it is not realistic to look at commercial media producers for that purpose. However, a bright future lies ahead in the enrichment of high-quality content in coordination with the pace of public education reforms,” said Wang.
Pushing Through Bottlenecks
After several years of rapid development, the paywalled knowledge business is facing bottlenecks. “Today, it is being challenged by ‘three low phenomena’ which relate to the decreased rate of consumption, course completion percentage, and time of use. These are the common issues facing all platforms,” said Qin.
In fact, disputes have accompanied the expanding of the industry. According to the research by iiMedia Research, some typical producers’ online popularity is not positively correlated with their ratings. For example, some products with ratings of over 140 have a rate of word-of-mouth less than one fifth of its popularity. On the contrary, some sleeper hits have received better comments.
In this regard, Wang said that many pay-for-knowledge service providers are startup businesses, operating commercially on the Internet. Therefore, chasing high ratings is the inevitable trend of their development. “The rating of a product often contradicts its quality. Even if the industry has gradually become well-developed, it will contribute only to the differentiation of the communication sector, not the unification of the quality and ratings. These are the realities the market presents.
All platforms are also facing criticism such as the low rate of course completion, the mode of selling through consumer anxiety, and propagating the misleading idea of there being a “shortcut” to knowledge.
“Zhihu continues to encourage respondents to write helpful answers and build a harmonious online community in order to promote users’ demand of lifelong learning. It is worth mentioning that Zhihu has integrated VIP payment slots and services with the Q&A community, so users can choose to pay for the answers to study more, which will increase the number of sales. Under this mode, the number of VIP users has grown fourfold within one year,” said Qin, showing Zhihu’s unique development philosophy compared with other platforms’ decision on transformation and growth.
Yu believes that users’ willingness to pay is not always utilitarian either. “Users do not usually want to learn for success, but for personal fulfillment and happiness, curiosity, mental stimulation, and self-improvement. Therefore, Ximalaya will provide more programming that can meet different users’ spiritual needs as well,” he said.
“Those issues can be solved by the market. We should not suspect the consumers’ wisdom, while the producers have the capability to constantly improve content. Compared with a few years ago, the products have changed a lot. For instance, the ‘chicken soup for the soul’ stories have been gradually replaced with practical and educational knowledge, which is the result of interaction between supply and demand in the market. Time will bring fast change,” said Fu, expressing optimism about the healthy development of the industry.
Wang suggested that the paid knowledge market is a commercial mechanism which requires relevant rules and regulations. If the market scale expands further, it also needs an established regulatory system.
TAN HANWEN is a reporter with the People’s Daily overseas edition.
