[Locked] FAKKU State of the Union 2016

2
GODsHandOnEarth (Not-so-)Grim Reaper
ChrisBRosado123 wrote...
GoodByeAndThanksForAllThe wrote...
Spoiler:
Well, that was a poor decision overall. You could probably support the hybrid model with adds, but you just removed 90% of your library and then you ask for money?

You're basically asking people to pay to get less... doesn't make much sense. The worst part of it all is that your entire library will be ripped and reposted anyways!

Your reasoning is also blatantly wrong. I am not sure exactly how old you are, but I've had to deal with the Japanese industry in general, and the whole "The West are all pirates oh noes~" really doesn't hold water. The manga industry worked for a long time and still does, the problem is the availability is nigh impossible, and it comes into multi-tiered issues. First of all, no store wants to old dirty mangas. Second of all, the few that would and do, mostly sex shops, do not attract the customer that would purchase such books. This isn't just an issue with porn mangas, but with all porn magazines overall. Playboy had to redo their entire business model a few years back or fear going bankrupt. Ironically, Playboy currently has some of the best writers/actual journalists working for them!. Many other porn mags had to shut down or turn to the internet.

So you have an overall very toxic market, that is extremely unlikely to work, with a high cost of production for a small profit margin, OF COURSE THEY WOULD NEVER TAKE THAT CHANCE. Mangas are in the same boat as books, book stores are closing everywhere because of e-books and the ability to order your books online. Except availability only is hard to come by for mangas, especially older ones (DBZ full collections are going for 600$+), so people turned to the internet. Humans do as humans do, we created an entire community of people wanting the latest manga. You also have the issue of people not willing to wait a year to get the official translation, so they'll just get scanlated.

Movies are in the same boat, theater releases still worked, but renting movies was being more and more of a hassle, availability online became greater and the ease of access made sales of movies plummet. Blockbusters and what not all failed. What kind of saved the movie-release industry? Netflix/Hulu and the like. What saved(and revitalized) the PC gaming market? Steam. Did it all happen at once? No. Netflix was originally stupidly cheap, 9.99$ per year. Steam has ridiculous sales to offer product and it tooks years before Steam put a serious dent in the piracy numbers. Before Netflix there were tons of alternate TV networks for free. It always comes down to ease of use, we're a lazy creature.

So how to turn the entire hentai manga industry into a profitable business in the west? You don't start by cutting your entire library, asking for huge payments (12.95$/month? You're asking for more than Netflix VIP!).

You're basically doing everything wrong, the exact opposite of what would drive people to you. What made Steam/Spotify/Netflix/Kindle work was in order of importance:

1. Ease of access
2. Cheap prices
3. Actual content (accessing a large library)

#1 will drive people away from piracy, if its easier to use your website than to pirate, people will flock to your service. That's why Steam/Spotify/Netflix worked. But that only works if the prices are cheap! People will want an easier time accessing their content, but they won't pay a large sum for it! #3 is you pay for actual content. If netflix had like 12 movies and 20 Tv shows, nobody would sub to that.

You did the exact opposite, your website is as easy to navigate as a pirated website, you ask for ridiculous prices (12.95$, holy shit, I have to mention it again), and you just culled 90% of your library!

So how can you make a proper business model? First, you'd have to make your website an even easier experience than others. You already got some of that, there is a reason Fakku got so big. #2 needs to go down to like 2.99$/month or something of the like. At your current price point, you won't live to see the end of the year. Your ads views will plummet (I am assuming subscribers don't get ads), your number of subs will maybe stick in the 100, if that, and you won't be able to license anything.


I don't understand why people think Jacob can freely choose pricing as he pleases. Let's say you make video games. You don't distribute them. You tell Valve and G2A that you want them to sell your games. Everything's great until a couple months later when your February check from G2A drops to a measly $100. But they sold units like crazy last month. What is going on? You ask G2A what happened and they tell you "Oh yeah we cut your price by 90%". They're selling like mad but your profits have become basically nothing. You ask them why and they just say "Oh, well some people thought your price was too high. So we lowered it!" ??????????????? How is this realistic?

I also don't understand why you think Jacob can just pick and choose how he's going to deal with hosting unlicensed content. There's one little thing that can happen to derail that entire plan. Jacob talks to a particular artist or someone from Wanimagazine. All they have to say is this "Nope, I don't want to work with you because you're still a piracy hub. In fact, if you continue we will have to consider legal action." That's it. Entire plan ruined.



I would say they understand that but simply don´t care, because they don´t want to pay no matter what...
0
hgatedc wrote...
... Goodbyes of people who never really created an account or actually never was a part of the community?

I know i can get rude, but thats basically a friut of truth. Im not inclined to sugar coat truths


I think his point is that a bad attitude only adds fuel to the fire. It annoys the hell out of me too but I want this shitstorm to die.
2
To me, this is literally the only way i see around me to support hentai artist, at least in America. I've always felt bad, I'm a niche within a niche, I only am appealed by loli genre hentai, which although slow, this site does support. How in the world am i going to support artist other than this way. I am fortunate that I even have the money to spare, but it makes me happy that i can support what i love and as far as i know FAKKU is the only one giving me an outlit to do so.

I think it was already stated there will eventually be free content again for those that can't afford the sub, so patience is key. Whats more important, supporting the people that enable your faps or just your faps alone !
2
OtakuSenpai The Overseer
I'm going to go watch anime now that I pay for before going to work like an adult. xD
0
so.. all my ''favorites'' are just gone?
I really want at least an list of titles or something like that...
:(
-1
Lucas Azevedo Martins wrote...
so.. all my ''favorites'' are just gone?
I really want at least an list of titles or something like that...


Too late, maybe reading the announcements once in a while could have saved that. Like 4 months ago.

Never read them?
4
I really can't see the harm in Fakku going legal with only paid content. Fakku has never been one of the better sites to find scanlations if you ask me. The content that got uploaded here is just a small portion of what is out there. To get your fix of free hentai other sites are much better.
That is the exact reason while I like Fakku going legal. Scanlations are still there to be found on other sites and Fakku does official releases which are completely uncensored as well. So in the end we get the best of both worlds. Officially released hentai on Fakku and free hentai elsewhere. It could not have been any better if you ask me.

And let's please not be morally correct all of a sudden. Of course it is great to be able to support artists through Fakku. But in the end free hentai is what made the community as big as it is, so let's not say that scanlations are bad al off a sudden.
If Japan is smart they use scanlations in their advantage to get more exposure and use sites like Fakku to make the cash the need and deserve. I'll definitely be supporting Fakku since I think they are releasing some great stuff and I hope in the future they will be able to release more magazines and doujins as well.
0
Lucas Azevedo Martins wrote...
so.. all my ''favorites'' are just gone?
I really want at least an list of titles or something like that...
:(


Fakku could give everyone a list of their favorites, but what would you do with that information? Pirate it somewhere else, obviously. So giving out that information would be supporting piracy, in a way.
1
Tsunetsuki degenerate
Any progress in making shipping costs to Europe reasonable?
Wani only has a couple of artists I really like (and it's not like much of their stuff has been released anyway), so I'd rather just buy their tanks when/if released. I'd prefer to buy physical, especially if it includes digital anyway, but the shipping costs are way too high.

Best of luck anyway, I hope I can support Fakku more in the future.

Rage wrote...
I really can't see the harm in Fakku going legal with only paid content. Fakku has never been one of the better sites to find scanlations if you ask me. The content that got uploaded here is just a small portion of what is out there. To get your fix of free hentai other sites are much better.
That is the exact reason while I like Fakku going legal. Scanlations are still there to be found on other sites and Fakku does official releases which are completely uncensored as well. So in the end we get the best of both worlds. Officially released hentai on Fakku and free hentai elsewhere. It could not have been any better if you ask me.

And let's please not be morally correct all of a sudden. Of course it is great to be able to support artists through Fakku. But in the end free hentai is what made the community as big as it is, so let's not say that scanlations are bad al off a sudden.
If Japan is smart they use scanlations in their advantage to get more exposure and use sites like Fakku to make the cash the need and deserve. I'll definitely be supporting Fakku since I think they are releasing some great stuff and I hope in the future they will be able to release more magazines and doujins as well.

Agreed 100%.
7
Fakku has supported me during the times I was single (Is still single) BUT NOW IT IS MY TURN TO SUPPORT FAKKU. I need my left hand but Fakku you may take my $ from me monthly.

It's a bummer to see a majority of people get upset at Fakku for removing unlicensed content. I feel like Fakku didn't have much of a choice to continue with unlicensed content with recent stuff happening about manga scanlations online with One Piece and Japan has been hitting sites. I understand that everyone doesn't have $ for a sub, but at the same time people should understand that everything isn't free. I don't really have much say in this as I do read manga scanlations online with is unlicensed content as well.

I hope the Fakku community will take this time to support them instead just moving to other sites. Ultimately, it is your decision so do as you please, but I will support them.
0
I appreciate what the site has offered but the price of usage has caused me to move to a new site. Best of luck to you guys.
1
Been on this site for probably about 6 years. Way before making at account.
This probably was premature. I agree its sad for the artists but what you did stopped nothing,the ease of the medium makes it just inevitable for pirate copies to be online. Its just like music. A good business model is to produce both scanslations and licensed content,but unfortunately this is a step in the wrong direction. I am sure this site will survive(disclaimer i am a subscriber and have purchased books) BUT it will become smaller by an amount you cannot imagine.

I feel bad for you, for trying to do the right thing. Unfortunately, much like the internet kills the indie musicians when it comes to actual music sales, it kills your products too.

I hope the clean conscience is worth the massive traffic fall.
1
I've been visiting Fakku every day for the past 5 years, since before I was even 18 (Waited to make my account :P) Checking here every day every few hours had become a ritual...As much as I'd love to subscribe and support authors, and I understand why you have to do this, I simply cannot at this time or in the near future :( I'm really going to miss Fakku and the community, and I hope things go well for everyone sticking around....2016 is already looking terrible
1
my main issue with the removal of the free content basically boils down to the destruction of most of the fan doujins like SAO, naruto, and other animes/manga. I know in the west fan created content is just that fan created, and thus unable to be sold for personal gain (or some such legal jargon) is this not the case in japan? thus the removal of the entirety of the SAO content for example? If its legally allowed to be sold then I have no real issue n(just hope it will be back at some point) but if it isn't then is there a possibility of it coming back? All in all i support the change as I hope it will help bring more doujin to the U.S. i just have the one issue which all things considered is fairly small. don't get me wrong I'm not gonna leave just because my fandom's disappeared I'll be sad but I'll stick around.

good luck to all your future endeavors jacob
0
RIP in pepperonis FAKKU 2016.
Back to e-Hentai I go. -.-;;
1
luinthoron High Priest of Loli
animefreak_usa wrote...
Peshies wrote...
Hello Jacob!

I have a question about the subscription pricing payment currency (I guess you would call it?)
Although I am posting this from Japan (using VPN), I live in Australia and was wondering if it would be possible to introduce an Australian (or not even Australian but a multitude of currencies) currency payment. The reason I was wondering IF this was possible is because currently I'm paying more than what the actual subscription costs. By that, some Australian banks have surcharges added onto them when paying in a different currency, paying in USD.

I just felt this is relevant as subscribing is what a large amount of people would have to do to be able to access the products that FAKKU! offer now due to legality issues etc... and it may potentially benefit more than just a few people. Again, I don't know how it works, just trying to suggest something that may be a benefit!

Happy New Year/Happy Holidays from Sydney Australia,
Matt!


Soooooooooooooo you want to pay less because the Aussie dollar is weaker then the us dollar? Even though your still paying what the conversion of what it really is? Bank fees aside you can't really think you can just pay 12.95 in Australia dollars if it worth less in America just like canadains/euro/yens/quids. It's not like a Mexican can send in 13 pesos and think they got 13 dollars.


That's not what he's saying, though. I do get the problem as my bank recently implemented this change as well - any payments not made in euros now have an additional 1% added to them. Small enough for me myself not to care too much about it, but it may be a different amount for him, and it certainly is an additional charge that did not exist before, plus one that effects most of my credit card payments.


beelzmon wrote...
A good business model is to produce both scanslations and licensed content,but unfortunately this is a step in the wrong direction.


This is not a good business model, it's a business model leading to takedown notices, lawsuits, and bankruptcy.
0
animefreak_usa Child of Samael
Fakku4You wrote...
Spoiler:
An idea I want to pitch here, regarding the use of Paypal.

As I understand, the issue with Paypal right now is that Paypal refuses to provide a service for subscriptions. If I am not mistaken here, then why not change your approach here?
The idea would be to introduce a Fakku Website currency (call it FFP or Fakku Fap Points) that can be purchased via Paypal and is tied to the account it was purchased with. The next step would be, like you already said is planned anyway:


Jacob wrote...


Later this year we will most likely add options to buy in monthly packages (3 months, 6 months, 12 months, etc) and we will be looking into adding a free trial.


From there, make it possible to purchase subscription via FFP.

Square Enix uses the same system for Final Fantasy 14 with their artificial currency, Crysta. You can buy Crysta via different payment options (including Paypal!) and use that currency to buy stuff from the Cash Shop of Final Fantasy 14 .... INCLUDING SUBSCRIPTION TIME!!!

...

You may all kneel before me in gratitude now.

Uhhh, you don't buy that in the cash shop, but instead in your Account Management. Still, the subscription there is purchasable with Crysta, which is the point, dammit!


That would work until paypal finds out and bans paypal site wide. A wallet made of bitcoins or Google is a possibility but using PayPal anywhere on it would be dangerous. We lost digital books payments because we asked to use PayPal as a subscription method. We still can use debt cards with credit logos and prepaid cards.... I think. No one has posted success as of right now. I would be a nice thing if a fakku card system could be a thing like PSN or steam but a last that harder then printing plastic.
0
Welp.

Adios Fakku
0
Hanayome Ultimate Laziness
blackdisk1 wrote...
my main issue with the removal of the free content basically boils down to the destruction of most of the fan doujins like SAO, naruto, and other animes/manga. I know in the west fan created content is just that fan created, and thus unable to be sold for personal gain (or some such legal jargon) is this not the case in japan? thus the removal of the entirety of the SAO content for example? If its legally allowed to be sold then I have no real issue n(just hope it will be back at some point) but if it isn't then is there a possibility of it coming back? All in all i support the change as I hope it will help bring more doujin to the U.S. i just have the one issue which all things considered is fairly small. don't get me wrong I'm not gonna leave just because my fandom's disappeared I'll be sad but I'll stick around.

good luck to all your future endeavors jacob

Doujins are not fully legal in Japan. They are in a grey zone and the anime companies turn a blind eye to the whole industry.
Fakku would have to jump through a lot of legal hoops to get doujins officially brought to the west. (negotiating with animation companies, western companies who hold the licenses etc.) And even then, the animation studio can just decide to not allow you to host their stuff after X amount of time.
1
I agree with the choice you guys made although on a side note still a little mad. People take pride in their work and it's all wasted when a random website has it. Making these panels and spending endless nights cleaning and filtering the way you like it takes commitment. I don't mind going the extra mile for it