GODsHandOnEarth Posts

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.