WeChat will soon let content creators charge for article reads

There’s no doubt that WeChat is the cutting edge when it comes to media in China. But the company is working on rolling out a new feature that sounds decidedly-old school: allowing writers to charge for access to articles.

Reports in the Chinese press have suggested that this feature is already on WeChat for beta testing. Tencent representatives say that’s not true, but in their response to TechWeb, they confirm that paid reading is coming sometime soon.

We don’t have many details, but the service will reportedly work the way you’d expect. A content creator with a WeChat public account can choose whether or not they want a post to have paid access, and how much they want to charge (up to US$30). Followers would then be able to see the first few lines of the post for free, but have to pay to read further. The point of this, Tencent says, is to give original content creators a new way to profit from their work.

Sina Weibo added a similar feature, as well as a buy-me-a-coffee style button, for content creators back in 2014. That resulted in some success; it reportedly brought in more than US$36,000 in its first three days online. But it didn’t have any lasting impact on China’s media landscape. Whether WeChat’s paid reading program can make a bigger dent remains to be seen. But charging for written content is always a tough sell when so many other providers are willing to offer it for free.