The Chairman's Bao

[imron]

equates to roughly 0.1$ per text which we deem as more than reasonable.

That's assuming someone reads all the articles though, which is probably not the case as beginners will avoid advanced articles and advanced people will probably avoid beginner articles.

 

If you were to produce bundle pricing (e.g. X articles for Y dollars) how many articles would it be feasible to provide for $10?  I imagine you could price it significantly higher than $0.1 per text, thereby picking up people who don't want to get locked in to subscription pricing.

[艾墨本]

I'm also in the boat of I have now stopped using TCB. I had been using it daily for a long time and enjoy the articles, but can't justify what I feel is a steep price. I know of one other person who is in the same boat.

 

While I get how much work goes into it, I think about other magazine subscriptions like Foreign Policy at $60 a year. They produce well researched and well written articles on a daily basis, as well but still manage to charge less than TCB. This, of course, can be contrasted with the $200ish per year for the NYT. 

 

In my mind, it would make sense to charge less and rely on have more subscriptions. Does it cost TCB significantly more to support two people over one person? 

 

Why not ads?

Why not a cheaper, just the articles option?

[imron]

Why not ads?

Ads won't bring in anything meaningful unless you have millions of users.

 

I'll also ask the same question Roddy asked another poster - what would you pay?

​

​

[TheChairmansBaoTeam]

Imron is correct. Ads would get us nowhere unfortunately. 

 

Also, you cannot compare a news source with potentially tens/hundreds of thousands of global followers to a niche Mandarin educational resource. The price has been set a level that both allows TCB to sustain itself and also to improve at the rate we need it to. 

 

We may offer a 'just article option' in the future but these things obviously take time. 

 

We are sorry your not happy with the pricing structure. 

 

Team TCB 

[roddy]

The NYT and Foreign Policy are such ridiculous points of comparison it's barely even worth addressing*. Where's the comparable resource in this sector where you're getting similar content at a better price? I'm not sure there is one, which is precisely why there was so much enthusiasm for the site when it started.

 

 

If you've been using it daily for a long time and enjoy it - well, maybe you won't regard it as worth $10 a month, or you can't spare that much. Fair enough. But there's obviously a solid product here which people will pay for. These folks spotted a gap in the market, spent a year and a half running at no cost to the user and are now ready to step up a gear. Best of luck, and thanks for all the free content...

 

A cheaper articles-only option might be viable, but I'd be surprised if it hasn't been considered and discarded. I know from on here you can easily spend a surprising amount of time dealing with people who've got locked out of their account somehow, who are having some local IT issue which they think is a problem with the site, etc., etc. For a business, the extra users at however much a month ($2.50 was suggested earlier) might not be worth the extra support time.

 

*strip out print advertising. Are they even profitable?

[艾墨本]

@TCB Team: Glad to hear there is the possibility of "just the article." If the price came down with it as well, it would likely be something I can afford. 

 

@Roddy: It is indeed a solid product. I would still recommend it to a friend.

[roddy]

Actually having given it a bit more thought I'm surprised they aren't making a little more stuff available free - gives both existing and new users more reason to stick around and perhaps convert to paying ones. 

[艾墨本]

On a side note, I am still able to get full access to all articles on my phone. I wonder if it is because I had to get the APK directly.

[Elizabeth_rb]

Thanks for the heads up, guys!  I noticed that there was a now a subscription, but I didn't know if it was for the whole service, or just parts of it.  As I would be using it spasmodically, it's not really feasible for me to take out a regular sub, esp. with the pound being on the floor at the mo!!!  Pity.....

[hanyu_xuesheng]

After having to create an account, and after having to log in, I was finally able to see the "The Chairman's" price list. Prices from 80 US$ (paid yearly) to 120 US$ (paid monthly) are way too high if one is only interested in the texts and the audios. I have my own system to keep track of my vocab and grammar points, so I don't need this. I would spend 40 bucks maximum per year!

[TheChairmansBaoTeam]

Hi There,

Sorry you feel this way but in order for us to produce 3-4 articles every day / 1200-1500 per year, and whilst continuing to develop and improve the platform, these are the prices we need to set. We will be changing the system so price plans can be seen without signing up though so thanks for pointing this out.

We welcome you back if you ever change your mind.

Team TCB

[reardoc007]

I just want express my thanks to the developers of this app and say that this is an excellent resource for studying Chinese. Over the past 6 months or so it has become an essential part of my daily study and have no problem with the subscription rates given the excellent content that is provided on a daily basis. Keep up the good work!

[OlivierS]

I second other people who quit. TCB's team should not take the comments as a critique, rather as an honest and personal opinion: $10 / month is clearly too much for the service for a lot of people (some of them expressing their own view here).

 

The right price is always the price that allows producers and customers to deal in an optimal way. In addition, TCB's costs are fixed costs, more users won't mean more costs for you (except bandwidth, which should not be a significant factor in the equation), did you think about how many more users you would have if you cut the price? I'd say 4-5 USD per month should be better and only need double your subscription rate; just curious, how many users did you lose when launching your pay program? I bet much, much more than half of it... Also, different subscription plans might do the trick (for example, without grammar, vocab, etc, with only a couple of levels available, etc).

 

On a side note, as a good marketing strategy, you should have launched your pay offer with a cheaper package for existing users (say, half price for the first six months) to get more of them hooked.   

[roddy]

Personally I'd sklp the backseat business analysis. They've got a much better view of how things work and what things cost than we do, and a 'half your price, double your customers' approach is simplistic.

 

Edit: And if the above "Prices from 80 US$ (paid yearly)" is correct, then you're basically at your $5 mark anyway. 

[zander1]

Was thinking of signing up to TCB, but am currently unable to get on either the app or the website - both don't load. Anyone else?

 

Edit: Can now get onto a (very very slow) site, but the app crashes when I open it. Have tried deleting and redownloading to no avail.

[TheChairmansBaoTeam]

Hi Zander,

The site appears to be working on our end. We have just released a special offer though this morning and are experiencing really high levels of traffic which could be the cause for loading times to be increased slightly.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

[roddy]

Tell us about the special offer then!

[zander1]

TCB - Thanks for the prompt reply! I am also signing up due to that offer so I guess it's working well!

[TheChairmansBaoTeam]

Hi Roddy! 15% off on 6 and 12 month subscription plans. A special offer in-line with the much anticipated introduction of beginner level (HSK 1-2) content. Thanks!

[TheChairmansBaoTeam]

Hi Zander, regarding the app issue. What device are you using? Can you explain how it is crashing? Where are you located?