Intro: Webtoon is an app/website where (mostly Korean) comics are released in short episodes. Those episodes aren’t released all at once but usually once a week, you have a free unlock a day and if you want you can have more by either watching an ad or by paying with coins, that are paid with real money. With the smallest purchase ($6), an episode can be unlocked with 3 coins (¢35) up to 7 (¢80). You can also skip the wait by paying with coins. I used it for years and I was ok by watching the ads at the end of each episode. It limited myself to one a day, otherwise I would scroll for hours. But, at the end of June 2024, they did the IPO, so that means ✨enshittification✨
So the guide on how to push away users to piracy:
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Have a scary reminder at the beginning of every episode that says that piracy is illegal. (I can’t screenshot that without a rooted phone, it’s blocked). This helps the user to have a daily notification that yes, this content is also available somewhere else and you’re not bound to artificial limits.
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Put the last three episodes of a series started 3-4 years ago in perpetual paywall. No more “just wait one week to get the new episode”. You want to see how that 200 episodes story that you’re reading almost every day for 3 years ends? LOL pay $6 to buy a coins package!
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Now that the user is pissed that they can’t know how the story ends, they’ll just search it on the illegal sites, since over the past years they had to skip through 200 reminders that yes, this story is also available over there.
Let me guess, the coins can only be bought in bundles. The bundles are deliberately made so that no matter how you spend the coins, you’ll always have 1 or 2 coins left. Which makes you encouraged to buy another bundle to make all your moneys worth.
Of course, the minimum package is 52 coins which isn’t divisible by 3, 5 or 7 (pricing is variable according to the series)
I used to pay for 4 streaming subscriptions.
Now no one gets my money. I would love to support developers, but I’m unwilling to put up with this bullshit to do so.
Ads even though I already pay? Have to turn off my VPN to use your website? Incomplete series? Inability to watch content offline? Regularly increase the cost well above inflation level? Geolocking content?
Streaming services get shittier and shittier with each passing day. Glad I ‘opted out’.
A note: I’m fine with paying, if it was known from the beginning. But bait&switch enrages me.
Piracy is a service problem.
It is and always will be, this is one of the few “modern phrases” that I never tire of hearing because it is still real and relevant today. But unfortunately, as long as megacorporations are whatever they are and people have this “capitalist” fear of piracy, things will not change and will only tend to get worse!
Reading on mobile browser? Let’s add a reminder to get the app on every page.
