I think both Tapas and Webtoon are mercenary websites that obfuscate the real value of donations by converting it to their proprietary currencies at variable rates and therefore defraud writers and artists. Nothing new there.

What's new is that Webtoon just showed me an ad after an episode with sound. WITH SOUND. What maniac puts ads with sound on a webcomic?

I am outraged.

(sorry for the silly rant. I'm serious about the defrauding stuff. Don't ever pay money to these websites, people. Go to the artist's patreon or whatever else they link to in their profile and donate there instead. If unsure, ask how you can contribute. A lot of authors take money via their personal websites or online stores, and some will prefer that you donate to your charity of choice. Just, don't use the Webtoon/Tapas own donation feature)

last edited at Dec 3, 2024 6:38PM

The fucks at Webtoons also put series that were free and finished to paid after a while so you can't read them anymore even if you have previously done so. Too bad if you've not finished reading the series yet.
They even say it's for the artists, so they can get money from finished series too, even though as you said they steal from them.

Speaking as an author who used to publish on one of those websites, I have firsthand experience with how they handle conversions. The difference between what a reader pays and what an author receives is huge. And that's not transparent, because, as I've said, the conversation rates are variable.

These websites bite a chunk out of donations by selling coins for a certain (variable) rate (say, $1 per coin) and then paying authors at a different (also variable) rate (in our example, maybe $0.60 per coin). On top of that, they also charge an administrative tax per donation (which, you guessed it, is also variable).

The fact that all of it varies a lot is an obfuscation technique, it means that you can never accurately measure how much they're taking from each donation, or how much the author will receive from what you pay. From my time as an author, I estimate they retain at least 50%, but it could be much higher.

All of this is intentional. They're defrauding authors and they know it, but they want readers to think they don't, and expect authors to remain quiet for fear of retaliation. Would I openly speak against The Service to my readers and risk never getting featured again. Or worse, getting buried into obscurity by their algorithms?

It's a predatory service, so I encourage everyone to not spend money on donations via these websites. They're not doing authors any favors.

last edited at Dec 3, 2024 6:22PM

By this, I don't mean to encourage anyone not to use tapas/webtoon. There's plenty of authors who depend on services like these for visibility. So, by all means, use the service, read your favorite series there, but don't donate through its system, use whatever other means the author themselves suggests.

It's also a little different if you're paying for a series that was commissioned by the service, since they're actually creating job opportunities, even if at low pay. It's okay to pay for a series you enjoy. Just remember that the money you spend is going mostly to the service, not the author.

last edited at Dec 3, 2024 6:24PM

And don't even get me started on ads. I actually did the math on that one, a few years ago, because it's a fixed rate. The amount an author receives for ads is negligible. If I recall correctly, it's about 1% of what you would get for a Google Ads impression on your own website.

Sorry, my goal here really was just to make a silly remark about sound on ads, I didn't mean to get political about it.