The Chairman's Bao

[imron]

I'm also intrerested to know what Roddy was insinuating.

Similarities in IP addresses and emails between 'TheChairmansBaoTeam' and other accounts posting in this thread (and others) about how great the chairmans bao app is.

 

@TheChairmansBaoTeam, we don't mind promotional posts, but they absolutely must make clear they are promotional posts, and that the poster has a connection to the thing they are promoting (perhaps make sure all of your team read our Guidelines for Commerical Posters).

 

You guys are getting plenty of legitimate positive reviews and feedback on the forums and elsewhere, both for the app and for your website (I often recommend it myself) and it would be a shame to see that tarnished by false reviews from employees.

[TheChairmansBaoTeam]

I can only profusely apologise on behalf of the team. The staff member has been warned and will not be doing it again.

Once again, apologies!

[GotJack]

Yeah I've got to say I really like both the website and the app!

 

One thing Ive noticed on my app however (Im running android) is the what I assume to be read aloud (sound symbol) isn't work. No sound comes out!

 

Also can appreciate you are looking to monetize this in the future. Do you have any idea of when this will be and how much the service roughly will be?

[TheChairmansBaoTeam]

Hey there Jack! 

 

Thanks for the kind words about the site and apps Please kindly leave a review if you have time. 

 

Regarding your issue - a few people have found this but it is either due to their phone being on silent or night mode. An update will be released in the next week or so which will mean that audios and sound will play despite the phone being on silent. Without sounding patronising, please check the volume is up first. If the problem persists, please kindly offer me your device and OS and i'll do all I can to get this resolved asap. 

 

Monetisation will come once all functionality is in place and the apps/website are running bug-free and users are happy. With regards to the subscription fee, this is very much still being discussed amongst the team and we love to hear user's feedback on this also. Please feel free to drop me an email about how much you personally pay for example 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months at mattcarter@thechairmansbao.com 

 

Thanks for the feedback Jack!

 

Matt

[li3wei1]

My suggestion would be rather than monthly, make it pay-as-you-go. You pay upfront, have an account, and every time you download or access an article some amount is deducted, and when you get too low you are reminded to top up. That way there's no pressure to use it as much as possible, if you are distracted or out of commission for months you don't feel like you've thrown your money away. It's fair and transparent.

[TheChairmansBaoTeam]

Hey Liwei, 

 

It's actually a great idea and something we may look at in the future. Unfortunately though, the subscription system has already been implemented and tested (which has taken a long time) meaning it's a bit late down the line to change now. 

 

Thanks though! 

 

Matt

[112233]

Just tried this out on my ipad. Really good stuff Chairmans Bao Team I'll definitely be using this regularly 

[GotJack]

Another thing that would be good to add to the app (android) is currently the title of articles you cannot use the dictionary functionality as in the main article. Would be great if you could change that.

 

As for price, having a quick look at other services Skritter is $15 a month, Memrise Pro $9 a month, Chinese pod $14 a month and Popup Chinese $8 dollars a month ($100 Dollars a year). Although these often have discounts for yearly memberships, ie Memrise is always offering me 50% off to sign up for a year.

 

I guess you could look at pricepoint just below some of these services (as they are established). I personally don't have to much money right now, so couldnt actually commit to whether I could sign up at these price points!

[TheChairmansBaoTeam]

Thanks Jack for those prices! They aren't far off what we are thinking, providing we have the extra functionality in there.

Regarding the title, it's a tricky on becasue we quite like the ability to flick between the Chinese or English Title. Having the live dict feature on there would mean the 'flicking' feature would have to go. I'm sure there is another way this is possible though so I will look into it. We do however ensure important and related words, whether in the title or not at listed under keywords.

Cheers Jack,

Feel free to send anymore feedback my way

Matt

[li3wei1]

Much as I like your product, I wouldn't pay those prices. I think of it in terms of what else I could get for the money. I haven't done a great deal of shopping around, but I think for one month's subscription, I could buy at least a hefty book with audio material (or movie with transcript, or similar) that would keep me busy for at least a month, and that I could keep forever or sell on. Not to mention all the stuff that's available on the web for free. I also don't pay for Skritter, or Chinesepod, and I don't 'belong to' a gym or fitness centre, but all of those things are still in business, so I may be atypical. I'm also at the 6+ level (on your site, but probably not on the HSK), and there is more free stuff out there at that level, but I imagine the market for books with audio at the lower levels is pretty competitive.

[Shelley]

I also don't pay subscriptions for things such as li3wei1 mentioned and I was thinking of using your products but as its only aimed a HSK3 and higher and my reading level is not that high and despite the much appreciated encouragement I would probably feel it a waste to pay for something that is not really suitable for me.

 

Also I can't install the apps either on my phone or tablet so I would only be using the website, I wouldn't be keen on paying for that. I know you offered to help in your post #15 but I wasn't filled with confidence when you didn't even get my name correct, small detail, probably unimportant in the larger scheme of things but it made me go hmmm wonder why?

 

I am not saying there is anything wrong with your product, lots of people like and use it, so keep up the good work, I will keep finding my new/stories elsewhere.

 

 

 

[TheChairmansBaoTeam]

Hey Shelley and Liwei,

Firstly, extremely sorry for misreading your name Shelley!

Thanks for both of your feedback though. As I said, there is still extra functionality to go into the app, such as the ability to contact the teacher who wrote the article and ask questions etc. We also plan to have the apps fully integrate with the likes of skitter, plecco and other major mandarin learning platforms. These are just two updates we plan to implement before introducing the subscription fee. At current, I agree, those prices are too high. Is there any particular functionality which you would like to be added which would perhaps make the subscription fee worth while ?

Thanks,

Matt

[imron]

Firstly, extremely sorry for misreading your name Shelly!

Not sure if that is an attempt at humour, but Shelley

[TheChairmansBaoTeam]

Oh my god, I'm not doing to well here!

[eliaso]

How to get the app for Android if you are located in mainland China and thus cannot access anything that has anything to do with Google?

[TheChairmansBaoTeam]

Hey there,

Hopefully by the end of this week, the APK file will be downloadable from our website. In the meantime however, we can send you the apk file download link via email. Please email me at mattcarter@thechairmansbao.com and I'll send it over

[Shelley]

I will have a think about what would encourage me to pay a subscription.

[xiaokaka]

For my part I don't think you need more features. Quality texts and audio are the most important features for me, which you already have. I would rather prefer it if you keep the subscription cost down instead of adding a lot of "flashy" features. That said, I think I would be willing to pay around $10/month if you keep adding as many texts as you do now.

[Michael H]

I agree with other posters here, that it would be preferable to try to keep prices low and not add flashy features which many users might not want.

[Tianjin42]

I wouldn't be able to justify paying for it at the moment. I'm guessing ad revenue wouldn't cut it?