What Make a Network Novel Popular? Implications for “Qidian.com”

Although readers can easily obtain a large number of network novels from platform, information overload and lack of attention also make the platform to provide more effective and direct information when readers choose a novel to read. Therefore, this paper attempts to determine the factors affecting the popularity of network novels through three aspects of novel, namely, the information of novel (such as the number of words and reviews), the readers’ evaluation (such as rating and the number of recommendations) and author’s expertise (such as the cumulative number of novels and days of writing). The results reveal that the number of words and rating positively affect popularity of novel. In particular, the u-shaped relationship between rating and the number of a novel clicks is demonstrated. The implications of these findings contribute to qidian.com and network novel platform to promote more effective novel marketing.