Tapas, formerly known as Tapastic, originally known as Comic Panda, is a webtoon syndicate set up by South Korean entrepreneur Chang Kim in September 2012. Operated from both Seoul and Burlingame by Tapas Media, Tapastic features a large collection of short-form, English-language webcomics and webtoons from over 5,000 artists. The website aims to create a platform where comic creators can publish their works without cost, describing itself as both "The YouTube of Comics" and "Candy Crush for Books." Since 2016, the Tapas Media's mobile app also publishes books through a freemium business model.
History
Chang Kim came up with the idea of starting an open-publishing platform after wondering if there was a singular online location to read all the webcomics he was a fan of. While YouTube users were making money through uploading independent video content, there existed no equivalent for comic creators. Kim also noted that this business model was already successful in South Korea. With $3.4 million in backing from both American and Korean investors, including Daum Kakao and former FacebookChief Technology Officer Adam D’Angelo, Kim started up Comic Panda in 2012. In 2014, Tapastic reached a partnership with Daum Communications, which operates the largest webtoon portal in South Korea. Through this partnership, Tapastic hoped to bring over successful Korean titles to see if they could find success in the United States market. The partnership deal also resulted in US$2 million of Series A funding for Tapastic. In April 2016, Tapas Media released a new mobile app, simply titled "Tapas". Using a freemium business model by offering content to readers for free as an incentive to pay more, the app added books to its line-up of offered media. According to Tapas Media, around 10-20% of the books are offered for free, creating a form of sample preview. Books are split up into "bite-sized micro chapters" in order to allow people to read portions within a few minutes. The model was inspired by free-to-playvideo games, such as Candy Crush. On April 17, 2017, Tapastic announced that it had changed its name to Tapas, redesigning parts of their website in the process. Tapas Media changed its terms of service the same day: the addition of a "Right of First Refusal" clause spurred controversy among the service' users. According to this clause, Tapas Media had the right to negotiate and refuse licensing deals for its users. Tapas Media reversed its decision on May 18, 2017 due to poor reception. In sync with their name change, they have also added several features such as friend codes, which benefits gives the code-owner and the invitee 200 coins, used for unlocking episodes and chapters.
Content
At its launch, Tapastic billed itself as the "YouTube of Comics". By 2015, the website features a collection of webcomics from over 5,000 unique artists. Kim stated that slice-of-life-style webcomics are the most popular on the service, which is likely because of their "shareability" and because they can quickly be read. Kim also noted that webcomics featuring school life and work life are "deeply relatable" to Tapastic readers. The website has formed an interactive community, with fans discussing the comics and some creators asking for fan feedback. According to Publishers Weekly, Tapastic had over a million active readers by April 2016, most of which are from North America and 90% of which are under the age of 34. Tapastic allows its content creators to profit from their work by selling premium webcomic series and by receiving donations in turn of exclusive benefits. Some artists on Tapastic make over US$800 per month on the service. Creators on Tapastic are also supported by shared ad revenue. Tapastic features a subscription feed similar to that of RSS, which is optimized to be used on the company's mobile app. In contrast, Caitlin Rosberg of The A.V. Club described using the Tapastic website as a "steep but fast learning curve." Tapastic offers a translation service for its Korean and French creators, as some of the company's internal staff is bilingual.
