Premium Subscription Service?

Zpreader 2018-02-01 02:58:21 UTC #1

Recently I was thinking about the coin system that Tapas has for premium comics and comparing it to the whole premium membership thing that Inkblazers used to have back in the day. My main question is, could Tapas implement something similar on top of the system that's already in place?

I figure if they were to try something like this they could go about it in two ways:

1. Full Premium Access Subscription

Just as it says on the tin, for a monthly/yearly fee you could gain access to all premium content on the site without needing to pay for/earn extra coins.

2. Premium Monthly Coin Subscription

This would be a model that considers that many readers simply may not care for alot of the premium content on the site. It would provide a large monthly coin allotment (with better rates than are provided when purchasing from the standard menu) with the promise that the subscription would last for at least a set amount of months.

I'm not sure if these ideas are particularly feasible (hell, I couldn't necessarily say that I would be all that interested in them myself) but I am interested in seeing what you guys think.

So what do you guys think of these ideas? Which service would you be most interested in if it were available to you? How much would you be willing to spend on either one?

arushiangelica 2018-02-01 07:34:12 UTC #2

Personally I prefer the current Tapas system. It might be too much to buy episodes with coins, like in Lezhin, but Tapas had complemented it with ways to earn coins, unlocking episodes and lots of free content. In Lezhin I would love to have subscription tho.

Heliox14 2018-02-01 08:31:43 UTC #3

That'd be nice, but I think I'll stick with the old ways.
I mean, most of the readers down here are either broke or looking for money.
_{like me}
So, if you're going to make people pay for reading these paid comics...I don't think it's going to work.

(Now, hopefully, if a Tapas Admin reads this, then please please please give us more bonus coins to spend XD)

LordVincent 2018-02-01 08:47:36 UTC #4

I have heard from creators that were featured on inkblazers that the main problem with their system was that, when it came to the subscriber money, it was split up based on stats and the like I think... so artists and fanbases basically ended up in a toxic relation to one another. There were fans that would go to a creator and write hate comments because in their eyes, that creator didn't deserve to be featured and thus they were taking money that they thought their preferred creator deserved more. Some creators adapted a similarly elitist attitude in private conversation.

At least I think it was something like that. Regardless, it's a thing that runs the risk of happening.

Being a premium creator myself, I don't want this type of culture to develop on tapas. I like our current cuddly atmosphere and think anything that may cause more harm than it does good is better off avoided.

LordVincent 2018-02-01 08:55:35 UTC #5

The thing with bonus coins are that they are basically money that goes right out of tapas pockets into the creator's pockets. Tapas does this occasionally as a promotional method, to get people to give premium comics a shot and the like.

What tapas truly needs is more free coin earning opportunities. The ultimate situation would be if noone, regardless of country, would ever go without such opportunities. But I think a more realistic goal is for that to be the case with americans, and for the lowest earning countries (those who currently get no coins or 10 a week) to be able to earn at least 1000 coins a day.

Free coin earning opportunities is something tapas staff have expressed, here on the forums, that they are working on to improve. All we can do is wait, hope and see.

Heliox14 2018-02-01 08:59:36 UTC #6

Here's hoping.
Down here, I can't get any ads. If there are, it gets up to 10 coins per ad.
And wifi connections in third world countries suck compared to you guys up there.

LordVincent 2018-02-01 09:04:59 UTC #7

If things keep going as they have, you guys should have fiber as well within 10 years time. Or something similarily good but better adapted for your country. The fact that you have wifi at all is telling of the fact that you're not all that far behind in this regard!

I think automation of production is going to make technological things more cheaply available in general really.
Now if only we could find a way to downscale the throwaway food numbers in richer countries and place that food with the people who actually need it, that would be great as well.

(Off topic I guess, but I figured I would bring positive thoughts to the table)

Heliox14 2018-02-01 09:29:03 UTC #8

That'll be a great thought.
(If our government would just throw away all the bureaucratic red tape and the corruption, then it would be very nice.)

What astounds me is the bias towards foreigners in our country. They're hailed as kings.
During the ASEAN Summit, the leaders were given 6G wifi. 6G.
While the rest of the country were given 3G, or 2G, or none at all.
I could go on with more examples, but...I don't want to subdue the positivity in this thread.

Zpreader 2018-02-01 14:42:19 UTC #9

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong - this wouldn't be a replacement system, just an addition. The old way of earning coins, ideally, would still be available.

LordVincent:

I have heard from creators that were featured on inkblazers that the main problem with their system was that, when it came to the subscriber money, it was split up based on stats and the like I think... so artists and fanbases basically ended up in a toxic relation to one another. There were fans that would go to a creator and write hate comments because in their eyes, that creator didn't deserve to be featured and thus they were taking money that they thought their preferred creator deserved more. Some creators adapted a similarly elitist attitude in private conversation.

At least I think it was something like that. Regardless, it's a thing that runs the risk of happening.

Being a premium creator myself, I don't want this type of culture to develop on tapas. I like our current cuddly atmosphere and think anything that may cause more harm than it does good is better off avoided.

That's an interesting issue I hadn't considered. Do you think that splitting revenue on the basis of release rate and relative cost per chapter (rather than by view stats) would prevent this type of animosity or do you think it might just lead to more issues between the creators themselves?