Nutritionist Gu Zhongyi from Beijing Friendship Hospital is answering a question on how to eat well. He is not doing it on China’s famous instant messaging app Wechat, but on a whole new platform called Fenda. And he is not doing it for free. His one minute long answer’s price tag: 50 yuan.
"Fenda sets a time limit of one minute to the answer, and you can only use voice recording, so the cost is low. As the answerer, I will try my best to concentrate my information into one minute. So there’s very low cost for the questioner and light burden on the answer,” said Gu.
Gu has answered more than 360 such questions, and made more than 21,000 yuan. The app received media attention after celebrities made a lot of money answering questions about their private lives. But there is much more to it than that.
"The sharing economy has been developing in China for five years now. From sharing houses, cars, to second-hand things. Last year we discovered that we can share virtual things too. Through the Internet, people can share their intelligence, wisdom and even virtual products. We firmly believe in a knowledge sharing economy. Someone with intelligence and wisdom can share their labor wherever they go in the world,” said Ji Shisan, founder of Fenda.
Service providers in China used to compete by offering free services first and creating models to generate revenue later.
But now, with Wechat and Alipay’s mobile payment services, there is a strong foundation for online markets and for apps that offer good content and services. Note-taking app Evernote has been in China for four years. China is the company's third biggest market in terms of revenue.
According to one of their studies, 90 percent of people who have the habit of taking notes in China are willing to try electronic gadgets, 20 percent more than in the U.S.
"Professional knowledge workers are core audience, those people who use their minds for living, like consultant, lawyers or students. There are the people tend to engage our product the most, and paying for that as well. Those people tend to find great amout of values in our services , are the people willing to pay us,” said Chris O’Neill, global CEO of Evernote.
The Evernote app uses various features to “facilitate the thinking process.” It helps users capture, and recall data in an age overloaded with information.
"Willingness of payment for virtual product and services in China has increased, younger generation consuming more virtual good and services. You don’t have to have a free model, to win China's internet market, there is valued business modal through which customer basically value your services. I value you this much and willing to pay your services,” said Raymond Tang, General Manager of Evernote China.
China’s mobile internet is changing. And companies from around the globe are eager to do business with the world’s largest online community.
