Research Article Open Access

A Study on the Profit Model of We Media in China

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the profit model of We media in mainland of China. Specifically, there are three main research questions. First, what are the main profit models used by We media in China? Second, what are the types that those profit models belong to? Third, how can we evaluate those profit models? Based on the in-depth interview about nine people (three college faculties, three journalists and three employees of We media), this study draws such conclusions. 1. There are totally six profit models used by We media in mainland of China, Specifically, advertising, paid reading, membership, profit-sharing model, e-commerce, and derivative service. 2. These six profit models can be divided into four types. Advertising belongs to “direct and high profit”, e-commerce belongs to “indirect and high profit”, derivative service belongs to “indirect and low profit”, the remaining three profit models, paid reading, membership and profit-sharing model belong to “direct and low profit”. 3. We can evaluate the profit model of We media through two main aspects. On the one hand, we need to recognize We media’s profit models in China are very rich. In other words, We media can make money by many different ways, which is a good condition for We media’s improvement. While on the other hand, there is a feature of We media’s profit models, which is direct and low profit method accounts for the high level of proportion. It means We media’s actual profitability is not very strong, so most of We media can only gain low profit in practice.

Shouzhi Xia

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