Webtoon Pledge Program is Ending - New stuff on the way?

[seru]

I am guessing here. Ads is definitely one of the revenue streams they're planning to implement. Only featured comics have ads at the end of an episode. Two, a tipping system like Tapas. Three, creators can lock their comics and have readers pay a fee.

Webtoons already dominated the Korean market and they are at a surplus. Webcomics is a multi-billion dollar industry over there. They're investing a lot of money in the US to see if they can replicate their business model here.

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Since we offer adult content, we can't run the traditional ads on it like Google adsense. It has to be a Netflix type of business model for it to work as you've mentioned.

Our current business model still works. It's a bit over-priced but people still bite it. I have to really figure out the whole logistics of it before launching.

[LordVincent]

Though to prevent abuse they may have to set update minimums such as 40 panels (~6 pages), otherwise someone is going to abuse it (1 panel updates) to max out their views.

I disagree, these minimums and requirements do not exist on Tapas and make no sense. Noone would find much success uploading 1 panel updates all the time anyway, especially not at Webtoon. The audience would lose interest.

40 panels would be way too much as well, some of us are uploading 5-15 panel episodes on a more regular basis already before the (possible) ad rev program. We'd be tossed aside for "abusing the system" if these regulations were in place.

To top it off, it would make it impossible for 4-panel comedy comics or similarily structured slice of life comedy to monetize their content. They would have to choose between no monetization on webtoon, vs abandon their artistic expression, vs compromise their artistic expression by jamming several different comic episodes with different subject matters into a single update. Slice of life creators would pull their hair out just hearing about it.

$1.99/mo for all you can read, or $.99/mo with a 12-month subscription doesn't sound like a lot but multiplied by 100,000s of YA BL readers, the income would add up quickly. What teen doesn't have $1 or $2?

I think you are overestimating the financial power of teens online. Irl it's different, but many teens have cards that cannot perform online purchases or do not have a card at all.
My observations with an audience that spans people mid/young teens to adults is that the teens are more likely to read a lot (so you get ad rev) or tip (watching ads), whereas adults with stable jobs are more likely to use money out of their own pocket on your work. Whenever the subject of paying for something comes up such as when I release a new book, the loudest message I get from teens is: "MOM WON'T LET ME BUY IT". Or, in the case of gay content, many people have homophobic parents that would ban their teens from the internet entirely were they to even ask about buying my stuff.

It might be different if your content is cisstraight and doesn't contain anything that would make a parent go "no, betty, not as long as you live under my roof!"

These things all combined is why paid content does better when targeted at adults. That, and...

Since we offer adult content, we can't run the traditional ads on it like Google adsense. It has to be a Netflix type of business model for it to work as you've mentioned.

^^^due to the sex shaming society we live in, ad providers don't always want to run ads on adult content. So subscriptions and other non-ad-related monetization methods aren't always just easier to sell to adults; in the case of adult content they are sometimes the only way.

[NanettesClouds]

$2 CPM, An integrated storefront, and a Tipping system would probably be enough to get me to at least start mirroring on Webtoons, if not starting to prioritize it as a host over Tapas.

If tapas had $2 CPM I would have made $55 this year off of advertisements (I think I did my math right?), and I've been on hiatus since january. Compared to the $3 that I've made from ads on Tapas since I got here in february 2017, That would be a significant improvement for me.

If these theories turn out to be true Tapas might seriously have to start stepping up its game to compete, which is maybe a good thing?

[seru]

Out of hundreds and thousands of subscribers, less than 1% are paid customers.
40% - Digital Sales
50% - Physical Sales

We'll see how this goes~!

[GoldenPlume]

If these theories turn out to be true Tapas might seriously have to start stepping up its game to compete

Not that Tapas doesn't want to up their game, but they literally cannot compete financially against Webtoons.

Webtoons:
Webtoons is 100% financed by the Korean equivalent of Google. Webtoons deals in millions of dollars. They spent $1M alone in 6 months on their Pledge Program. They're soon going to drop $220,000 in prizes on a single contest. They partnered with Stan Lee. They licensed Star Wars IP. They exhibit at many conventions including NYCC which is mega bucks expensive.

Webtoons is like the US Federal budget. They can seemingly spend forever and always be in the red.

vs.

Tapas:
Tapas is self funded. Tapas has been around since 2012 and they've raised around $10M total in venture financing. That works out to about $1.6M a year. As far as we know they haven't partnered with any major names in the industry, hosted major contests, or licensed huge IPs. They haven't spent anything significant on marketing and don't exhibit at conventions.

Tapas is your typical nano-cap business. They have major budgetary constraints and have to work with their current revenue stream supplemented by preferred stock sales.

Maybe one day Tapas will be financially sound enough that it can play major league ball like Webtoons. But for now it has to work with what it has. It's an AA league and is still building a team, attracting/scouting talent (creators), and developing a franchise/fanbase.

That said, open/non-gated $2 CPM plus tipping for all creators on Webtoons would make it very hard to keep Tapas as our primary platform. 6x more readers and 10x more revenue (3 page updates vs. 1 page updates)... that's really hard to pass up.

[LordVincent]

In webcomics, being platform exclusive only makes sense if you are a big business (as in have enough followers to have your own site that people will actually want to go to) or have a contract with a platform anyways. Otherwise you are better off publishing in multiple places to obtain multiple revenue streams!

I will keep posting on Tapas regardless and it continues to be my preferred platform mainly due to my positive communications with the people running the site. I see great potential in their intentions and out of the open platforms available it is the one that is the most positive towards adult content. That's a huge reason for me to stay no matter what happens financially.

[seru]

It's ad revenue sharing. Mature content is in danger LOLOLOLOL It's not advertiser friendly.

I wonder how much they will give out? HMMM

https://www.webtoons.com/en/notice/detail?noticeNo=768

[Zugaikotsu]

HOLY MOLY! Well, since they will implant them officially in August, we still have June and July to get our bucks.... i hope the new requirements arent like 50k subs and 100k views! Ahahaha just kiddinG, probably will be something around the first patreon tiers (3k subs 10k views), with lesser cpm,

[seru]

I am guessing it will be somewhere

1k views = $0.50-$1 (Overall not average)

We shall see!!

[eabemie]

10k views for $1??!!! That would be quite a slump from the Patreon pledge

[Zugaikotsu]

Indeed... 1 buck for 10k is so... low. Hahaha. Hiveworks is like 2 dollars for 1000 views. And they are waaaay smaller then webtoons.

[seru]

Edited.

I was thinking it would be like Youtube.
1k views = $0.50-$1, Overall views.

If it's those featured comics, they probably get more since readers stay longer there.

@Zugaikotsu It's revenue sharing so we have to wait and see how much crumbs us creators will get. LOL. Edited my comment LOL. I can't math at night.

[Zugaikotsu]

Sadly isnt a fiix value how patreon pledge stats, but well, better hope for the best!

[LordVincent]

Hmmm alright then I will have to do a major overhaul on my comics and replace all nsfw scenes (even though they are heavily censored) with directions to my patreon or tapas. A bit of a nuisance but ok

Man do I wish we lived in a world where people didn't behave like sex is worse than violence and torture... because seriously my horror comic will probably be FINE through the changes but any comic that has sex... DEMONSPAWNS!!! HOW DARE!!! Lol

[darthkrievos]

Parents watching tv with their kids
Sees someone get shot and killed
Parents: This is okay
Sees two people have sex
Parents: Oh god no, cover the kids eyes and ears
.
.
.
.
.
wut?

[onichan]

i think nsfw is fine as long as it's properly censored?? i hope..

[onichan]

fyi they updated with this today (for the people who haven't seen it yet)

[LordVincent]

I read it and apparently dialogue detailing sexual acts is also forbidden. It's just that it's not been technically enforced and noone cares about it lol. I imagine they will get stricter about it when they have the glaring eye of ad providers on their every move.

Basically if you wanna be completely sure you don't lose ad rev once this program rolls out, you have to either censor dialogue that is too juicy or just put up a banner going "HEY GO READ THIS PART ON [OTHER PLATFORM] BECAUSE I CAN'T POST IT HERE DUE TO WEBTOONS CONTENT POLICY"

[LordVincent]

On a positive note...

If ad rev payout is $0.5/1k views, then those of us who have multiple series could wind up earning more than we did under patreon pledge. I know I would if that's the case.

I hope there's no super high requirements, so small creators can get some cash too.

[onichan]

dialogue detailing sexual acts is also forbidden

lmao thats crazy D:
i wonder where they draw the line? cos i dont have very explicit dialog only explicit images lol
i guess i have to wait and see ^^;

If ad rev payout is $0.5/1k views, then those of us who have multiple series could wind up earning more than we did under patreon pledge. I know I would if that's the case.

i only have one active series atm, but yeah i think that's their plan
i hope we will be able to make more than 10k on one series also

but as long as the ad revenue is around 1$ / 1k im happy