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AbacusTech

TikTok owner ByteDance bets on free web novels in challenge to Tencent’s China Literature

  • ByteDance’s Tomato Novel relies on recommendations to keep users reading, but the advertising is a turn-off for many
  • Tencent dominates the web novel industry with China Literature, which continues to attract top talent with its paid business model

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Just a year after its launch in April 2019, ByteDance's free online literature platform Tomato Novel had more than 10 million daily active users. Picture: Screen shot of Tomato Novel
Xinmei Shen

Li Zhao was having a rough day. As the young, bearded man staggered home, he worried about the scolding he would receive from his mother-in-law. As he considered this in the middle of an empty street, a blue bolt of light streaked down from the sky, knocking Li to the ground. When he sat up again, with torched hair and a burnt face, he realised he was blessed with superhuman abilities.

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The 50-second trailer from TikTok owner ByteDance is one of many videos online that promote stories with supernatural or mythical elements, often with wacky plots and flimsy special effects. The low production quality is by design because the trailers are not for upcoming films or television shows: these are for advertising web novels on ByteDance’s Tomato Novel platform.

Li’s story was advertised on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, where ByteDance seeks to leverage its prowess in viral videos to help promote its foray into China’s rapidly growing web novel market. The industry is currently dominated by China Literature, which is majority-owned by internet giant Tencent Holdings.

Tomato Novel chief editor Xie Sipeng said in September that the short trailers work because they make the story’s conflict clear to viewers. Many follow a similar pattern: a downtrodden protagonist has a turn of fate and is revealed to possess extraordinary abilities.

After encountering the blue lightning, for example, Li arrived home only to be ridiculed by his mother-in-law for being unworthy of her daughter. Li decided he had enough and announced that he was leaving the family. But once a TV broadcast revealed Li to be a 24-year-old billionaire, his mother-in-law kneeled in front of him, apologised and asked him to return.

Unlike China Literature’s multiple web novel platforms, which require a payment for every chapter, readers interested in the book Shishang Zui Qiang Nuxu, which translates to “Strongest son-in-law in history”, can read it for free on Tomato Novel. The catch is that users will be interrupted by full-page or pop-up advertisements between pages.

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