Report Abstract
This report studies the “paid content” market — single-purchase or subscription payment for text, short-video, and audio content (explicitly excluding long-video-platform memberships, livestream tipping, and non-reciprocal “support the creator” payments). Based on an online survey of N=1,230 respondents collected in August 2025, plus public market data, it finds that paying for content itself has shifted from marginal exploration to large-scale penetration. Three figures anchor the finding: 71.8% of users expect their willingness to pay to improve or hold steady over the next year; more than 70% of users exhibit some degree of repurchase behavior (only a minority are “one-shot” buyers); and micro-drama’s paying-user ratio jumped from 40.5% (Jan 2024) to 48.8% (Feb 2025). The report’s central thesis is that the true value of paid content is not merely monetization but acting as a “filter for upgrading user relationships.”
1. Paid Content Models: Content Becomes the Independent Unit of Payment
1.1 Three Driving Forces
The report identifies three forces behind the rise of direct content monetization: (1) creator monetization needs — advertiser KOL marketing budgets declined by 3–4 percentage points per year over 2023–2025, pushing creators toward direct monetization; (2) maturing user payment behavior — 71.8% of users are willing to maintain or increase content spending in the coming year; and (3) improved platform payment infrastructure — WeChat official-account paid reading, Bilibili “charging” monthly plans, Xiaoyuzhou paid podcast programs, and native short-drama payment, as platforms shift from “traffic distribution” to “transaction matching.”
1.2 Two Core Models
| Model | Pricing logic | User pays for | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-purchase (单次付费型) | Per-item, buy-and-use | “the specific content itself” | Paid podcast episode, short-drama episode, official-account paid article, Dedao single course |
| Subscription (订阅制付费型) | Recurring payment, continuous delivery | “the ongoing content relationship” | Bilibili monthly charging, Zhishi Xingqiu (知识星球) annual fee |
The two are complementary, not substitutive: single-purchase lowers the entry barrier; subscription deepens user relationships.
1.3 Format Penetration
- Short-drama (short video): paying-user ratio rose from 40.5% (Jan 2024) to 48.8% (Feb 2025).
- Bilibili creator charging (mid/long video): Q1 2026 average monthly paying-user count grew 40% YoY.
- Podcast (audio): Xiaoyuzhou added 64,000+ podcast programs and nearly 700,000 episodes in 2025; a single top paid program can reach millions to tens of millions in sales.
- Knowledge courses (Dedao/Zhishi Xingqiu): China’s knowledge-payment market is projected at RMB 57 billion in 2026 (+18.8% YoY), with paying users exceeding 432 million, average annual knowledge spend rising to RMB 380, and repurchase rate above 65%.
The report’s conclusion: growth is driven by the two-way match between “creators’ direct-monetization demand” and “users’ matured payment habits,” not by any single platform’s traffic dividend.
1.4 Content Type Determines Payment Model
| Content type | Common model | Typical case |
|---|---|---|
| Story/documentary | Monthly subscription | Bilibili charging — 食贫道 documentary |
| Community operation | Annual fee | Zhishi Xingqiu — PM维他命的知识花园 |
| Knowledge/professional | Single/season purchase | Dedao — 万维钢·精英日课 |
| Emotion/thrill | Single/season purchase | Short-drama (free first episodes, then per-episode/season) |
| Deep long-form | Per-article | WeChat official-account paid reading |
| IP/celebrity | Season purchase | Xiaoyuzhou — 杨天真的高情商公式 |
Advantages of subscription: stable predictable creator income and high repurchase (2025 Bilibili creator charging income +71.1% YoY, with 10.63 million paying charging users). Disadvantage: high ongoing content-production pressure. Advantages of single-purchase: low threshold and short decision chain. Disadvantage: weaker user stickiness.
1.5 Pricing: The Core Is “Emotional Intensity,” Not “Value”
The report’s signature insight: pricing hinges on how strongly a user feels “I can’t bear not finishing this” (不看下去很难受). The trigger is not price level but emotional intensity — “not whether it’s worth it, but whether it hurts.” Psychological anchors: monthly plan ≈ one cup of milk tea; single-episode ≈ one book; annual fee ≈ one meal. Reference price bands: professional communities up to RMB 999–1,999; celebrity full-season podcast RMB 199–299; masterclass single episode up to RMB 199; subscription column up to RMB 199/year; annual fees RMB 99–365; full seasons RMB 10–50; single courses RMB 12–30; single article RMB 19.9–99; single podcast episode RMB 6–15; short-drama single episode from RMB 1.
1.6 The Four-Quadrant Ecosystem
Paid content sits on two axes — relationship type (sustained vs. single-transaction) and content driver (emotion vs. knowledge):
- 充电追更型 (sustained × emotion) — users pay for continuous following.
- 社群学习型 (sustained × knowledge) — users pay for community + knowledge.
- 即买即看型 (single × emotion) — users pay for emotional payoff.
- 按需获取型 (single × knowledge) — users pay for knowledge acquisition, higher unit price.
TopKlout insight: content quality is only the “entry ticket”; the real ceiling is whether a creator can establish delivery expectations within the right quadrant. Quadrants are also interpenetrating — single-transaction models are upgrading to relationship models (short-drama adding full-season subscriptions), while relationship products add single-purchase options to lower entry barriers.
2. Paid Content User Behavior Insights
2.1 Free vs. Paid Consumption
- 44.1% consume free and paid content in roughly equal proportion.
- 29.6% mainly view free content, occasionally paying for something they especially like.
- 16.5% mainly browse paid content.
- 9.8% almost exclusively view paid content.
On the relationship between free and paid: users do not strongly perceive a “free → paid” progression — paid content remains an “independent option” rather than an “inevitable upgrade.” Distribution: 35.9% “free content is a window to know the creator; paid is a deeper experience”; 32.2% “free content is already enough; paid is optional”; 17.1% “no relationship, each on its own”; 9.9% “good content should be paid”; 4.9% “unsure / never thought about it.”
2.2 Who Pays: High-Income Lean Emotional, Knowledge Locks Young Middle-Class
| Segment | Age/income | Dominant driver | Key TGI indicators |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gen Z | Under 25 | Knowledge-driven | Bilibili charging TGI=117; Xiaoyuzhou podcast TGI=118 |
| High income | Monthly income ≥ RMB 20K | Emotional entertainment | Short-drama payment TGI=109 |
| Young professionals | 26–30 | Knowledge-led, emotion-assisted | Dedao course TGI=113; short-drama TGI=115 |
| Silver generation | 50+ | Leisure/relaxation | Short-drama TGI=113; Dedao course TGI=104 |
2.3 Mode Breadth and Platform Concentration
Roughly 4 in 10 users use both single-purchase and subscription modes, reflecting “consumption elasticity” — a sign of market maturity. On mode preference: 41.0% use both; 30.3% subscription-based; 18.9% single-purchase; 9.8% no clear preference. On platform count for sustained payment: 45.9% pay on 2–3 platforms; 28.5% on just 1 platform; 17.0% none (no sustained payment); 8.6% on 4+ platforms.
2.4 Amount and Frequency: Small-Ticket, High-Frequency
Monthly spend distribution: RMB 51–100 is the largest band at 31.9%; RMB 31–50 at 22.1%; RMB 101–200 at 17.4%; RMB 11–30 at 14.2%; RMB 201+ at 9.4%; RMB ≤10 at 5.0%. In total, 73.2% of users spend under RMB 100 per month. Purchase frequency centers on “2–3 times per month” (the largest band at 30.2%); the remaining frequency bands span weekly-to-quarterly and irregular cadence, leaving room for further consumption release.
2.5 Payment Motivation: Content Value Leads, Emotion Supports
Top motivations (multi-select): 47.7% “content is meaningful / teaches knowledge or skills” (value-driven); 25.9% “finished free content, want more” (incremental demand); and three 23.7% items — “want to know the story’s follow-up” (emotion), “enter the creator’s community” (relationship), and “cheap, try it” (price); plus 23.4% “support a favorite creator” (identity) and 23.2% “friend/online recommendation” (social). The report concludes payment is fundamentally about perceived value; emotional/relational/social factors form the “supporting layer” rather than the largest single driver.
2.6 Decision Path: Rational, with Pre-Purchase “Homework”
Content (topic + quality) is the first-order decision factor; price is the adjustment valve. Before paying, users collect information mainly via reading the introduction/outline (26.9%), comparing prices (26.5%), and asking friends/communities (25.5%); only 5.2% buy directly without hesitation. Decision-factor scores (out of 5.00): topic appeal 3.81, free-content quality 3.72, price reasonableness 3.63, preview/trial 3.57, friend recommendation 3.52, creator/IP fame 3.50, platform recommendation/homepage exposure 3.50, other-user reviews 3.49.
2.7 Trigger Scenarios: Multi-Scenario, Not Single-Moment
Payment is not triggered by one emotional moment but by an overlay of scenarios — content hooks (cliffhangers), social proof (discussion/recommendation), emotional relationship (long-term following), practical motives (problem-solving), signal triggers (previews), and price stimuli (discounts). The distribution is balanced across these drivers (each in the low-30s% range in the multi-select distribution), reinforcing that paid conversion is cumulative.
2.8 Type Preference: Story Beats Knowledge; Three Hard Metrics
Users prefer “relaxation / companionship / immersion” over pure knowledge, willing to pay for “low psychological cost + high emotional return.” Yet their standards for content they truly follow are strict: stable quality, continuous output, and visible structure. Top importance ratings (out of 5.00): content quality clearly above free 3.70, systematic/serialized content 3.64, reliable update frequency 3.62, exclusive scarce topics 3.56, no ads 3.55, belonging/circle identity 3.46, creator exclusive interaction 3.45, longer/deeper content 3.44.
2.9 Price Sensitivity: Low-Ticket Acceptance High; Psychological Cap at RMB 31–50
Acceptance rates for low-unit forms are high and decline for large annual subscriptions — willingness is fundamentally about “low price, small ticket” rather than “continuous subscription.”
| Platform | Tier | Acceptance rate |
|---|---|---|
| Bilibili charging | RMB 12/month | 60.7% |
| Bilibili charging | RMB 30/month | 46.1% |
| Xiaoyuzhou podcast | RMB 9.9/episode | 58.0% |
| Xiaoyuzhou podcast | RMB 199/full season | 45.6% |
| Short-drama | RMB 1/episode | 68.5% |
| Short-drama | RMB 10/full season | 56.3% |
| Zhishi Xingqiu | RMB 299/year | 34.8% |
| WeChat paid article | RMB 6/article | 55.9% |
| Dedao course | RMB 19.9/course | 55.2% |
| Dedao course | RMB 49.9/course | 45.9% |
The psychological ceiling for single purchases concentrates in the RMB 31–50 band (the largest share at 27.0%), indicating a narrow price-elasticity space.
2.10 Pricing Reference & Reaction to Price Hikes
Pricing reference is dominated by subjective feeling: 23.1% content length/volume; 21.1% “my own feeling — if it feels worth it, I don’t look much at price”; 20.9% creator’s personal value; 17.4% content’s professional depth; 13.7% market price of comparable content. “Feeling of worth” outweighs most objective standards. On price hikes, most users adjust rather than immediately quit: 26.4% reduce purchase frequency; 19.9% continue buying (if increase is small); 17.9% wait and watch; 14.6% switch to other creators’ comparable content; 10.6% directly abandon; 10.6% turn to free substitutes.
2.11 Repurchase: Over 70% Repurchase; “One-Shot” Is the Minority
75.7% of users exhibit some degree of repurchase (47.0% continuously repurchase/renew; 28.7% occasionally repurchase/renew). Repurchase rates by platform: short-drama 70.9%, Dedao single course 56.0%, Xiaoyuzhou podcast 55.9%, WeChat paid article 55.8%, Bilibili charging 53.2%, Zhishi Xingqiu 51.1%.
2.12 Why Users Keep Paying vs. Stop Paying
Keep paying (multi-select): content quality (high level or clear increment vs. free) 49.6%; no good substitute 30.2%; creator interaction (community/comment replies) 29.2%; stable update frequency 27.7%; acceptable price 27.0%; emotional/fan connection 26.3%.
Stop paying (multi-select): economic factors (beyond acceptable range or spending cuts) 45.5%; creator persona/behavior controversy 25.2%; found better comparable content 24.9%; free substitute appeared 23.6%; update frequency dropped/stopped 23.6%; content quality declined 23.1%; lost interest in topic 22.9%.
The report’s key distinction: the core driver of churn is economic, not quality decline — quality is a slow variable (accumulates before triggering change), while price/economics is a fast variable (one fluctuation changes behavior immediately).
2.13 Future Willingness
71.8% of users expect their payment willingness to improve or stay stable over the next year, forming a stable payment base. On attitude toward free vs. paid: 37.2% lean toward free content and don’t want to spend; 30.2% lean toward paying for content; 24.4% decide by content (“some worth paying, some watch free”); 8.2% indifferent. The report identifies the 24.4% “decide-by-content” group as the key growth pool, convertible to clear payers when content quality, pricing rhythm, and trust-building are done right.
Chapter summary: the paid-content market is dominated by highly-educated young users engaging in multi-value consumption. Users don’t pay for a single need but for “perceived value beyond free content”; decisions result from multi-scenario interplay, not momentary impulse. Continuous payment depends on a content-quality moat; churn is usually economic; future willingness is positive, with quality, system, and stability being the decisive factors.
3. Typical Case Studies
3.1 Emotion-Driven: 食贫道《首尔夏天》(Bilibili charging)
Users pay to be “seriously entertained,” not to “learn something” — quality is the entry ticket, emotion is the driver. Three mechanisms: (1) the creator appears in person and experiences rather than hosts, making the audience feel invited by a specific person; (2) private aesthetic choices form a personal “signature” (recognizable within 10 minutes); (3) the ending leaves the “last mile of emotion” to the user, inviting co-construction of meaning rather than imposing a conclusion.
3.2 Knowledge-Driven: Dedao《万维钢·精英日课 6》(annual daily update)
The uniqueness of a continuously iterating knowledge IP is “long-termism + persistent presence” — seasons 1–6 spanning 10 years, built on being “present every day + iterating every year + cross-cultural digestion.” Three pillars: annual daily-update rhythm (creating stable expectations — users pay for the promise of “following Wan Weigang tracking global elite minds all year”); cross-cultural digestion (secondary creation, not translation); and a “general education + soft skills + hard thinking” non-professional methodology label that opens horizons rather than stuffing knowledge.
3.3 Platform-Mechanism-Driven: Xiaoyuzhou 知行小酒馆《投资大师系列》
Platform mechanism design (small subscriptions vs. per-article vs. per-episode high unit price) is a hidden variable that determines monetization efficiency. Three mechanisms: a fixed three-person panel (one lead + two vertical experts) delivering “one topic, two thinking frameworks”; systematic thematic design (complete closed loop, not scattered episodes) with “buy the whole season cheaper” pricing encouraging users to buy a full thinking framework; and mixed-tier pricing hooks that lower decision cost for users at different willingness levels.
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