Chapter 16: A Healthy Development Model

That morning, like any other, many readers logged onto the website to look for books. Suddenly, a glittering, gold-trimmed scrolling banner appeared simultaneously at the top of every primary and secondary page of Zeye Chinese Network.

"Congratulations to 'I Am Truly a Big Scoundrel' for accumulating over 100,000 points in tips, becoming the first Alliance Leader of Zeye Chinese Network and the novel *Flowering Sword Records*!"

The sudden appearance of the banner naturally affected the reading experience to some extent. However, most readers' attention was immediately captured by the fresh and exciting keywords: "tips," "Alliance Leader," and "100,000 points."

What was a tip? What was an Alliance Leader?
100,000 points—that sounded incredibly impressive!

Clicking on the banner revealed a detailed introduction to Zeye’s newly launched tipping feature.

Meanwhile, in the "Blood Army" fan chat group, "I Am Truly a Big Scoundrel" was triumphantly showing off his grand achievement. In the screenshot, he sat proudly at the top of the *Flowering Sword Records* fan leaderboard, a golden crown representing the Alliance Leader title shining brilliantly beside his name.

"See that? When I say I’ll do it, I do it! I never talk big! One thousand yuan—small change! Keep it up, Blood Cloud!"

The group exploded.

"We can top up money? Damn, I’m going to tip too!"
"Exactly. I’ve been reading Blood Cloud’s book for free for so long, I should support him at least a little bit!"
"Asking timidly, how much of that does Blood Cloud actually get?"
"I’m just a student, I’m not as rich as Scoundrel, but I’ll tip five yuan just to show my support."
...

That afternoon, Yu Zhe crawled out of his dormitory bed, rubbing his bleary eyes. After yawning, brushing his teeth, and washing his face, he sat down at his computer as usual and opened the Zeye website.

Zhao Zejun had told him yesterday that the site had launched a tipping feature: 100 Zeye coins could be exchanged for one yuan, and the author would receive half.

Yu Zhe hadn't paid much attention to it. For one, he wasn't short on money—a few yuan or a few cents meant nothing to him. For another, like all current web novel authors, he didn't believe anyone would actually pay money to read a novel.

However, as an author, he secretly hoped someone would tip him—not for the money, but because a tip was a form of validation.

He clicked into the "Author Earnings" section of the author dashboard. The page paused for a second or two before loading a list of tipping records. Behind a string of familiar reader names were the times and amounts: some as small as 10 or 100 points, many in the tens of thousands. Beside the largest one, "I Am Truly a Big Scoundrel," was a '1' followed by a long string of zeros.

The total at the bottom started with a 2, followed by a long string of digits.

Yu Zhe rubbed his eyes, counting several times before he was sure the number was 248,956.

"240,000?" Yu Zhe jolted, his sleepiness vanishing instantly!

100 points meant he got 0.5 yuan... 1,000 points meant 5 yuan... 10,000 points...
240,000 points—damn it! That meant over 1,200 yuan?!

1,200 yuan wasn't a fortune, but it was certainly not a small amount. What was a fresh graduate’s monthly salary? It was about that much. The key was that this came from writing a novel! He had been writing for so long, millions of words in total, all out of interest, without earning a single cent. Just yesterday, he had thought that hardly anyone would tip.

But the data before him told him clearly: in just one night, he had earned 1,200 yuan!

If this trend continued, why bother going to class or looking for a job? He could easily make eight or ten thousand a month just by writing novels! Yu Zhe finally understood. No wonder Zhao Zejun had told him more than once that writing novels could be a way to make a living! Now it seemed Zhao’s prediction was spot on—it wasn't just a living, it was a path to prosperity!

He hurriedly called Zhao Zejun to confirm that these Zeye coins could indeed be settled at the end of the month and converted into over 1,200 yuan. Overjoyed, he closed his computer and shouted to the dorm, "Stop sleeping, everyone! Dinner is on me tonight!"

...

Ten days after the tipping feature launched, everyone on the Zeye project team was thoroughly convinced, and all previous doubts had vanished into thin air!

In just ten days, the total tips on the site had crossed the two-million Zeye coin mark. After deducting taxes and the readers' share, Zeye Chinese Network had earned nearly ten thousand yuan from tips alone.

This total was not massive, but it was enough to cover the operating costs of Zeye Chinese Network for these ten days. Moreover, it appeared that the tipping feature was a relatively stable source of income. As the number of readers, authors, and novels on the site grew, the total tipping amount would increase proportionally. In other words, Zeye Chinese Network could achieve a break-even point, or even a slight profit, relying solely on the tipping feature.

The project team members were incredibly excited. As professionals, they knew exactly what this meant.

The tipping feature designed by Zhao Zejun might not make a fortune, but it was a groundbreaking, ingenious invention. It pioneered a brand-new, healthy profit model that fundamentally solved the desperate situation where novel-reading websites lacked stable income and relied entirely on capital to burn through cash for traffic.

Previous novel websites, including the industry leader Huanjian, had to rely on two simple models: capital investment or advertising. Both had fatal flaws. Advertising naturally compromised the reading experience—the more ads, the worse the experience. Ads and site growth were inherently contradictory, making it hard to form a positive feedback loop; they were merely a last resort. As for capital investment, regardless of whether you could secure it, it brought negative consequences, such as equity dilution and the loss of control.

Furthermore, capital itself does not create value. Even with investment, there was no guarantee that a site could grow strong. The internet bubble of the previous two years stemmed from this—massive amounts of capital flooded in, and anyone who built a website could get funding, but the sites couldn't find their own profit points, couldn't create value, and eventually formed a bubble that led to a "winter" for the internet economy overnight.

Zhao Zejun had always been clear about one thing: the goal of driving traffic was not for the sake of impressive-looking data, but to ensure that data generated real, tangible value.

The internet market in 2002 was just starting; it was far from the era where one could make money merely by pushing a concept. Even after 2010, when various capital giants rose, anything that relied solely on concepts without substantial content could not go far.

Through the tipping feature, Zeye Chinese Network had formed its most primitive mechanism for value creation, allowing it to survive independently without relying on any external capital.

"Boss Zhao, I am completely convinced. No wonder our professors often said that besides burying your head in technology, you must also look up at the market!" Song Yun remarked sincerely while they were eating together.

The tipping feature brought Zeye more than just financial income—strictly speaking, the money was only a small, tangible part of the benefit. The more significant impact was invisible: the emergence of the tipping feature caused a massive earthquake throughout the entire web literature circle.