r/webtoons • u/Comprehensive_Let778 • Sep 12 '26
Self-Promo I hate the pay-per-chapter system. So I built an official, subscription-only platform.
Hey everyone,
What the title says. Subscription-only. No coin/gem/key system. Extra feature to ‘leave tips’ for a series, if you want to. No ads either.
With the mods’ blessings, I have been given permission to talk about my platform: Tsuki Comics (click to view the website)
I have established contact with Bilibili, Kuaikan, and Kadokawa. If this venture turns out to be successful, we plan to branch out into novels and manga print releases. In fact, I have already indicated this to the publishers mentioned, and they have agreed to cooperate when the time comes.
I’m aware that we’re starting with a small launch roster, but I hope this can be the beginning of something big and lasting.
Every chapter has been handled by a human team. No AI used in the localization process.
The early days are going to be the most challenging, but it’s also the most crucial period for the platform for licensing more titles and meeting the operational costs. I’m hoping we can build Tsuki into something special together, and having your support from the very beginning would mean more than you know. Even simply being there for the launch, spreading the word, sharing your feedback, and following our social media platforms can make a world of difference.
Additionally, we have a page where you can suggest licenses, and we will be hosting discussions and votes on our Discord server before licensing a series.
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u/False-Body-242 Sep 12 '26
This platform will be a breath of fresh air to this community.
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u/Artistic-Stable-3623 Sep 12 '26
wait... do people not understand the website was most likely made by AI 😭 (riding off the top comment here)
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u/Comprehensive_Let778 Sep 12 '26
I know it looks basic, we used a ready-made template from Vercel
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u/Artistic-Stable-3623 Sep 12 '26
You could be right. Honestly the em dashes where I don’t think a human ever would write something like that is what tipped the scale off for me.
If I am wrong (which I very well could be) could you reply with the vercel template link? It just seems very weird for someone to put em dashes in those spots and the gradients obviously point to either you making the website with AI or the template itself being AI
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u/Comprehensive_Let778 Sep 12 '26
Sure, I have asked my dev. Will let you know as soon as they reply.
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u/Artistic-Stable-3623 Sep 15 '26
Hi, you are probably busy running ur site, but could you link the template lol. Everyone here sliming me cuz I made an AI accusation, and I would love to be wrong so slide :O
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u/Comprehensive_Let778 Sep 15 '26
Disclaimer: I do not know a lick bout coding.
So the website was developed by 3 different devs who have not interacted with each other, but I did tell them explicitly that we have a no AI policy. The first part is a vector animation that the first dev had created, and they suddenly dipped due to irl issues. I provided the write up on the homepage myself, and didn’t use AI for it. I had very specific requirements such as the carousels, new releases, latest chapters, etc, but my budget wasn’t high, which is why it looks basic. For gradients, I had asked the first dev to refer to catpuccin. Afaik, a few third party apps have been used as well.
I do plan to overhaul the site once we take off.
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u/Artistic-Stable-3623 Sep 15 '26
I see... does that mean there was a vercel template or not? This seems like a backtrack of words...
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u/Artistic-Stable-3623 Sep 13 '26
sounds good, just reply whenever they find it 😭
(people downvoting me so quickly before even checking the website)
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u/writergirl824 Sep 13 '26
You're definitely wrong. As someone who has spent the better part of the last decade in marketing, including website copy, those em-dashes are correctly used and exactly where they should be!
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u/Artistic-Stable-3623 Sep 13 '26
We shall find out... I have a suspicion that is not the case
While the em dashes are used correctly, a human team rarely puts them in that sense nowadays and that's why I am very heavily leaning AI. Regardless of that though, you can not tell me that the gradients do not point to AI usage, with buttons and whatnot. Either they used AI or the template was AI who knows, but I'm fairly certain it was AI.
Although, in reality, we won't know till OP gives us the template link so we can rlly see...
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u/writergirl824 Sep 13 '26
You're still wrong. Again, as the person who does this for a living. Em dashes are still used correctly in website copy regularly. We shouldn't dumb ourselves down because idiots on the internet think an em dash is an AI gotcha when AI only does that because it was trained on human writers' work.
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u/Artistic-Stable-3623 Sep 13 '26
I think it would be pointless to debate without evidence from the op… I asked him for it, he said he’ll notify his dev and come back so we will find out when he sends a template…
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u/Part-time_Mermaid Sep 13 '26
Uh. You do realize that source of the template is different from the source of the text, right? As in, someone different than the dev needs to supply the text. It doesn't just magically appear. Those subheadings and other fields use em dashes correctly, just how the other person pointed out. If you're going to make make accusations, back it up with more than just, "Use of em dashes!!1! Must be AI!!" Provide examples where the em dashes aren't being used correctly.
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u/Artistic-Stable-3623 Sep 13 '26
"Provide examples where the em dashes aren't being used correctly"?????
AI also uses em dashes perfectly? This is not the right argument, rather I would ask why there's quite a few em dashes throughout the site... gives the AI suspicion
I never said they were used incorrectly, I was just questioning why there's quite a few of them
Another thing that makes me think AI are the gradients with the buttons, although that is a much smaller tell then the use of em dashes in quite a few places
To add on, the dot in between the genres (ik ur prob thinking there's no way), but AI typically does that...
I do want to acknowledge that I could be wrong, as well as point out you could be as well, as we both lack proof. Thus, we can't debate on anything until OP gives the template (which he said he would), so let's just wait :)
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u/False-Body-242 Sep 12 '26
I have not personally verified any of that. However, it seems the OP already mentioned that it was not made by AI...
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u/Artistic-Stable-3623 Sep 13 '26
Of course, I could definitely be wrong. I just see a ton of AI usage at my work and stuff, and this website just has all the tells, so either the template or the website itself imo was made with AI. (fully admitting I can be wrong, I just want further proof (I am a bit of a skeptic) )
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u/Born_Elevator_1851 Sep 13 '26
Doesn't matter to me if it's made by AI if they license good comics and library eventually, I would wholeheartedly like to support them
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u/ThatBookwormHoe Sep 12 '26
No AI? Sign me tf up
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u/Comprehensive_Let778 Sep 12 '26
Nope, we have an amazing team working behind the scenes. We credit the staff on the series page, and you can hit them up on Discord, if you want to know anything about the localization process.
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u/ThatBookwormHoe Sep 12 '26
Take my money omg omggggg. I took a look at the free preview of that Salted Fish one and its gorgeous! Hats off to everyone for their efforts 👌
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u/rosehipsgarden Sep 12 '26
While I understand that you're newly launched, the lack of release/publish dates on the chapters themselves is mildly irritating to me. There's also a small inconsistency in the text for days of release. Su Yuan Refuses To Ascend just says "Friday" whereas all the others have "every" included with the release day. Does it not update every Friday? While I presume it does, the inconsistency promotes uncertainty.
I would like to see an "About" page and an "FAQ" page. The About page should cover a lot of what you've posted here. I cannot find anything on the website that promotes what your goals are or why I should believe no generative AI is used. Information about you, your team, proof that it's human led should be available.
The FAQ page should cover things like the lack of titles, how the community can reach out to publishers to help you, how titles can be requested, as well as questions about the subscription model (in my opinion the fact the subscription auto renews should not be only found under terms of service), refunds, how indie creators can contact you if they're interested in joining, etc.
What is your stance on censorship? How is profanity treated? Are curse words completely "bleeped" and released by symbols or asterisks completely? Or are they censored with just a few asterisks such as "bullsh*it" or are full curse words allowed? Or do you just translate them out? Blood and violence? Is blood censored or obscured? Are more violent scenes edited or removed entirely? Are smut titles permitted? If not, what is the plan for titles that while not full smut may get a little spicy or heavily suggestive? For example, if a work contains images of an orchid wet with dew after a heated kiss and a fade to black, would you cut the panels with the orchid? Would the panels be edited to remove the dew drops?
Do you have plans on how to handle a title if it becomes problematic like "Get Schooled"? Would you remove the title completely from the platform or would you leave it available but no longer release chapters? How do you intend to communicate this to subscribers?
I genuinely wish you luck in this endeavor, but right now the offerings and information available is too bare bones for me to subscribe.
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u/rosehipsgarden Sep 13 '26
Ok after a little more digging I do see that "Staff" is listed on each title. But it is wildly easy to miss. I looked at each title multiple times and I never noticed the list of staff until I saw your comment OP that they're listed on each title and thought to myself "no they're not". So I went and checked them each again and sure enough I'm wrong.
But they're practically hidden. Why is your staff coming after alternate titles? Why is nothing done to make their names stand out like the author, artist and publisher? It would make sense to me if the publisher wants that information more prominent, but your staff should be easy to see.
Also, what is everyone's roles? "Staff" means nothing. Are they all trandlators? Who's the localizer? Who's the English editor? Why should I believe the list of names are real people?
You left a comment saying staff can be reached on Discord. Where is this information on the website? Again, you need an About page that has this information. Or even a devoted staff page so users can see all staff members with available contact info, what they do, the title of each series they work on, and a little blurb about them. Are their names on the website the same as their Discord handles?
The website really needs a lot more information on it, and in more than one place.
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u/ShadowMagister Sep 13 '26
I like the idea of having a dedicated page for staff ngl. But as for the contact of staff and their names? I don't think everyone is so keen to give their personal information so quickly nowadays. I mean even mangakas and artists (in twitter etc) work under pseudonyms all the time right? And a valid contact information can be a discord message as much as it can an email address imo
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u/rosehipsgarden Sep 13 '26
My apologies, it sounds like I wasn't clear communicating my thoughts. We're very much on the same page.
In no way shape or form do I want or expect staff's full government names to be provided. There is nothing wrong with the names listed as staff, whether they are pseudonyms or not. Those are the names staff have chosen to go by.
My issue is that things like names and pseudonyms are extremely easy to make up so the person running the site can say "look, we have real people! We don't use AI!" only for it all to be a lie. Things like knowing what role these staff members play, as well as providing contact/social media info that staff approve of being listed, helps to counter people's genuine concerns about AI.
The OP mentioned in a comment that staff can be messaged on Discord. This is totally fine. My issue with that is why is this not available to find on the website? Do their names on the website match, or are at least similar to, their Discord usernames? Users should know who they're reaching out to if it is an individual and not say a mod account.
When staff members is just an easy to miss list of names/pseudonyms, the unfortunate reality is that in today's age I do not consider that as enough verifiable proof that those people are real. I want to believe they're real. It's their boss' job (OP) to make me feel confident they're real. A "staff about" page helps assuage those concerns, especially when paired with social media links.
Can all of that be faked too? Absolutely. For example, I like doing puzzles. AI is rampant in the puzzle industry right now. Brands of all kinds are using AI, or licensing images by artists (who were established artists before AI) who now use AI to "assist". There's also a very big issue of drop shipping cheap puzzles from China that are all AI. Many of these drop shippers make cheap websites using templates not dissimilar from what OP has used for their site, and include "artist" names on the puzzle description and even "artists we work with" pages. But there's no social media or contact information, like the artist's website, for those "artists". You google the name, and you cannot find any information on them, no portfolio of any kind. They're all made up. The ones that include pictures, half the time you can reverse image search and it's someone's stolen photo. The blurbs all come across as written by AI.
It absolutely sucks that we have to fight to prove we're human right now. I'm willing to bet that if you put my comments through an AI detector at least one comment will get a "written by AI" result.
There's no perfect solution unfortunately. But having more information about staff would help me feel more inclined to hand over my money. As of now, I don't feel inclined at all. My overabundance of caution is directed towards OP, not the staff. This is OP's project. They should be able to provide answers to the questions I have asked and be able to make me feel confident in their claims.
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u/ShadowMagister Sep 13 '26
Ah get what you mean to say. Yeah the lack of more info about staff does make the credibility fall a bit. Hopefully they are working on fixing this issue.
I am in the discord server so I have talked with the staff itself, along with the people working on the titles. They held a q&a to let us ask questions :) so I can atleast say the people are real lol.
As for AI issue, bruh I don't wanna even talk about the harms AI is doing to everyone smh. It's so ducking out of hands rn, I just hope the bubble bursts and we get better tools to systematically remove the rampant AI that's getting injected on the internet daily 😭
You should join discord server and make a suggestion about the whole doubts you have ngl. Anyways, thanks for clarifying and all, and I hope they put a dedicated page for staff separately soon 💙
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u/rosehipsgarden Sep 13 '26
While I'm glad they have a Discord server and think it's a very nice thing for the community, serious questions about their subscription service only being answered in a place that does not show up on Google search results is not consumer friendly. The average person does not use discord, know what discord is, nor would they recognize the discord icon.
Consumer protection and rights are important to me. Understanding the goals, plans, limitations of the business model (ie licensing works) should all be available on a public space that will show up on a Google search. Like their website, or a reddit thread like this one. Anything that requires a consumer to create an account to get answers to important questions, is not good for consumers.
If, and by "if" I am in no way accusing OP of anything this is just hypothetical, OP does not want to answer serious questions about things like censorship and more information on how their company avoids using AI (for example there's concerns in this thread that the website has AI on it and OP said they'll talk to their website dev about it, so how did they vet their dev to make sure the dev hasn't used AI in the past and won't use AI on this project), on a public forum that is accessible to anyone without an account should be a giant red flag to everyone here.
Hiding information is bad. It's what a lot of the big corporations do. If this project is supposed to be a better alternative to the big corporations that are doing terrible, shitty things, I expect better. Better is not easy to achieve, and I do not expect perfection but a lot of crucial information was left out from a launch. This isn't being marketed as a soft launch, offering reddit users a discount to test their site and provide feedback. It's being marketed as a full launch at full price. About and FAQ pages are basic website design. Why are they not part of the launch? (I know you don't have those answers nor do I expect you to try and answer on behalf of OP, they're just general questions being spoken aloud)
The Q&A they held sounds like a great thing that could be edited into the start of FAQ and About pages and I hope to see website improvements to promote transparency soon.
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u/EKAAfives Sep 13 '26
as someone who doesnt mind the coin system/fastpass on webtoon, this looks good apart from a few things.
1) no actual dates on when the next chapters will be free (assuming that they will be).
2) how long will the prices and the model be kept up until it devolves, assuming it does stay and becomes competition
3) will there be a mobile app if it survives?
4) is there a place or will there be a place for indie creators to make their own story and publish them?
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u/wewillreigns Sep 12 '26
Can I send a request? Scream Queen is one manhua I wished was completed on Bilibili before they closed.
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u/Born_Elevator_1851 Sep 13 '26
Genuinely hope u guys are successful in ur venture. Sent the url to my friends too But are u limited to josei manhua only ?
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u/Comprehensive_Let778 Sep 13 '26
Thank you! Our digital platform is focused on shoujo and josei manhua and manga. But we might look into other demographics for our print releases.
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u/EVA08 Sep 12 '26
Do the author's get a reasonable amount of pay with a subscription model?
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u/Comprehensive_Let778 Sep 12 '26
We have no idea how much the authors are paid. I had asked this question to the publishers and they said it’s between them and the authors, and can’t be disclosed. For indie creators, we share 50% of the revenue
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u/xzerozeroninex Sep 13 '26
50%?!!!That’s daylight robbery!Platforms should not get more than 20% of the income from the authors.
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u/Comprehensive_Let778 Sep 13 '26
50% is the standard in the industry especially since we are also taking on localization costs, and compared to a pay per chapter system, our revenue stream is very limited - as much as I’d love to pay creators more, I also need to license more titles, pay translators and churn out more chapters (if we are talking about direct costs).
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u/slugfive Sep 15 '26
I often deal with publishers in Korea who only up to a certain earnings amount take a higher percentage. (Once costs are covered) then it can be ~90%+ to the author. For example: after $100 has been made then the author gets most of the earnings. It incentivises good stories rather than pumping out clickbait. At the very least it could be an option.
50% forever isn’t about covering your costs, it just cuts down any dreams of the author making good long term value out of their work. If I had a story I believed in, I’d avoid your site.
Especially because most publishers require exclusive rights- if I give it to you, then other publishers will refuse it. But if you’re dealing with publishers, rather the authors it’s a different beast I’m not familiar with.
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u/Euphridia Sep 13 '26
Curious: does that percentage account for paying for human translation?
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u/Comprehensive_Let778 Sep 13 '26
50% in its entirety goes to the creators. Localization costs are separate
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u/xzerozeroninex Sep 13 '26
Should be,unless they overpay for translators.
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u/Comprehensive_Let778 Sep 13 '26
It does not account for translators. Localization costs are separate.
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u/xzerozeroninex Sep 13 '26
And the percentage should be cost ( including translators),then host website/app computes their 20%.
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u/Recent_Peanut7702 Sep 13 '26
This. I do not support platforms if authors don't receive a lot more than said platform
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u/SarkastiCat Sep 13 '26
I will start with the most obvious question as there have been multiple similar ads promising to address issues that people have with major platforms.
Beyond the subscription based model, what else makes your different?
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u/Comprehensive_Let778 Sep 13 '26 edited Sep 13 '26
Our comics are exclusively for shoujo and josei demographics.
And the comics we license are highly popular in their countries of origin.
And we try to have variety
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u/amyjosi Sep 12 '26
Oh that sounds interesting, now that we aren't buying the episodes, how will you cycle through licenses? Also I really like the prices I just saw, this works so I can just bingeread what I want, without having to pay a lot and I also won't hate myself if the story gets a gutted ending!
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u/NyxenShadow Sep 12 '26
I really hope you succeed. Can't wait to see where this will go!!!
And NO AI ?!?! COUNT BE IN !!!!
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u/Careless_Channel_641 Sep 13 '26
Thank you for doing this! About time for a Spotify for comics. Imagine paying per song, that's so 2003
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u/Comprehensive_Let778 Sep 13 '26
Thank you for all the support. I’ll try my best to license more comics
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u/NinjaNails389 Sep 12 '26
Looks good, sounds good but your library is so bare bones right now. I counted 4-5 series with less than 7 chapters? This isn't really worth signing up for till you get way, way more. And that's more like in the hundreds.😓
However I will keep an eye out, cause God, we need this to become a thing! We need huge libraries we can subscribe to read from while still paying the authors!
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u/Comprehensive_Let778 Sep 12 '26
Yes, I know there aren’t many series. See, there’s a reason to it. Publishers aren’t willing to license series to a platform that uses the subscription model, so where I could license a series with no extra licensing costs, I need to pay hundreds of dollars as minimum guarantee/advance royalty for each series.
For me, the priority was to get the platform out there first, which is why there aren’t many chapters, yet.
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u/Recent_Peanut7702 Sep 13 '26
Because you guys take 50%! Robbing authors
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u/Comprehensive_Let778 Sep 13 '26
Robbing authors, you say. Do you consider the additional localization, platform upkeep, marketing and other indirect costs that come into play? 50% is the standard, whether or not the platform is subscription or pay per chapter.
Also, we only license from those indie creators who already serialize on a main platform (eg, Su Yuan Refuses to Ascend is published on Bilibili) - so our platform is only an additional revenue stream for indie creators. All our contracts are non exclusive too, so they can publish elsewhere if they wish to.
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u/HolyEvilTanyanism Sep 13 '26
Well done u/Comprehensive_Let778 . I cant wait your site to have novels so that I can upload my novels on your site. Feel free to DM me if you want to discuss with me about getting novels to your site.
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u/Comprehensive_Let778 Sep 13 '26
Novels would be published through traditional means such as kindle/physicals. Not hosted on a site.
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u/HolyEvilTanyanism Sep 13 '26
Oh I see. I thought it would be similar to Tapas or Inkitt site. It would be great if your site hosts online webnovels.
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u/Expensive_Put_3338 Sep 13 '26
Last platform who did this also added pay per chapter system a year a go
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u/Comprehensive_Let778 Sep 13 '26
I think it’s probably because of changing publisher expectations- which is why we make it clear from the get go that ours is a subscription based service and specify that it will remain so for the duration of the contract, and pay the cost of it initially
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u/Stepsis24 Sep 13 '26
With all due respect the website looks exactly like asura and reaper scans(which all have a vibe coded look). Combine that with a lack of an app it’s incredibly unappealing to subscribe to even if your intentions are truly good.
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u/shaser0 Sep 14 '26
Here you are casually stealing my business ideas... Jk, I was talking to a friend recently and I said that if no one wants to do it, I'll do it. This is a great idea after all, your pricing seems a little low tho, especially since your selection will grow but not necessarily your user base considering you don't have a lot of advertisement. Be careful.
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u/Uriel1865 Sep 12 '26
Do you plan to license other languages? Spanish, for example.
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u/Comprehensive_Let778 Sep 12 '26
Thought about it, but it’s not in our immediate list of priorities- one day, hopefully
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u/Exciting-Mall192 Sep 13 '26
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u/Meepmeep_8936 Sep 13 '26
I think it’s impressive to have established contracts with those huge companies so I had my hopes up. But I looked at the website and it doesn’t look good from a UI/UX standpoint. Unsure if it’s even optimized enough to hold a large library. I wish yall good luck tho.
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u/AstralDreamzzz Sep 14 '26
Amazing launch! Would you be interested in helping launch (or consult for/supervise) a western high fantasy manga/webcomic project? It’s a high fantasy BL that I’ve been working on for some time, still in early art draft stages but the story is there, and have been debating which platform to launch on once I front load a dozen or so chapters. Comps: Slayers, Magic Knight Rayearth, Heaven’s Official Blessing, Requiem of the Rose King, King’s Maker, Yona of the Dawn, Witch Hat Atelier. Not sure if it’s the right fit for your platform but thought I’d ask!
I’m also dual-pathing a serialized web novel version, since progress on that might be a bit faster and help me gauge interest in a full color comic.
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u/Jingurei 17d ago
I'm going to spread the info but unfortunately I'm going to stick with the pay per chapter platforms. Much easier to read for me since most platforms like that permit you to use free rewards to read. Entering payment details never works for me since my card number is always rejected.
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u/Arkhaist05 Sep 12 '26
Wow the site landing looks great, though I haven't subbed/read anything yet. Do you plan to make mobile apps?
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u/Pink-frosted-waffles Sep 12 '26
Nice hope it stays like that.
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u/Comprehensive_Let778 Sep 12 '26
Yup, we make sure the publishers agree to the subscription model before committing
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u/Pink-frosted-waffles Sep 13 '26
Think about adding independent artists to the platform too? I would like to share this with my more creative friends.
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u/Comprehensive_Let778 Sep 13 '26
Unfortunately, I don’t think the model is sustainable to them, unless they publish their comics elsewhere and have a non exclusive contract. We can, at best, provide an additional revenue stream. For example, one of our titles Su Yuan Refuses to Ascend, is published on Bilibili - the studio has a non exclusive contract with their original publisher, Bilibili, hence are considered independent. They have a primary revenue stream already, so they aren’t entirety dependent on our platform for revenue.
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u/Pink-frosted-waffles Sep 13 '26
So could someone who is publishing on Webtoon canvas or Tapas community also publish on this platform?
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u/Comprehensive_Let778 Sep 13 '26
Not at the moment. Independent artists who are contracted by a platform are paid a fixed amount per chapter. But if they have a stable source of income from elsewhere and only treat our platform as an additional source of revenue, we could consider
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u/Pink-frosted-waffles Sep 13 '26
Nice to know. Thank you for all the assistance and I hope this platform helps a lot of artists. 💞
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u/onlyifitwasyou Sep 12 '26
Manta used to be subscription only and now they have a hybrid of paid gems and subscription. I hope you guys have more long term success with a subscriptions