New Tokyopop.com
So. Tokyopop released a new version of their site with social networking capabilities (blog, photos, etc). Disapproval of this is loud and echoed nearly verbatim by everyone who does disapprove of it.
I, still, have no particular opinion on it. It's already less-buggy (to my experience) than MySpace (which is the site it's most often compared to).
Right now, I just sit back and offer this as commentary on the whole thing:
Lawl.
On one hand, I'm hoping it gets all the airheads off the forums. They can share their manga and fanart and fanfic and short fic and blah and blah and blahblah through Tokyopop itself. Perhaps that'll reduce the number of people desperate for the pats on the head who come to the TP Forums. (Alternately, now that there are people who know that exists, it may increase the numbers of airheads on the forums. So this is either going to be very good or very bad.)
On the other, it's basically a social networking site. Whoever is going to have to moderate it had better be getting paid well, because it's already crazy. I feel desperately sorry for whoevers job that will be.
What many of the detractors don't think of is how good this could be for the company. Here, wait, let me get my public relations major hat on. *tpp* Okay. It's on.
Humans are, if nothing else, social creatures. Some of us require less social interaction than others to get through the week, but there are very few hermits happy to live off in the corners of the world that get little/no human traffic and eat grubs and crap to avoid having to interact with other humans. Even if we don't want to talk to someone, we generally like being around other people on occassion. (On the internet, this is called lurking. IRL it's generally termed 'freaking creepy' unless you're the guy ordering coffee and sitting off in the corner of Starbucks with a newspaper and being quiet and undemanding of the staff.)
So we've established that humans are social creatures, correct? Excellent. Let's move on.
Tokyopop wants more customers. Perhaps if they had an increase in customers, they could afford to pay their staff and their creators more! And maybe get more staff! ((Ooo, or maybe pay some of their interns so I could afford to be one!!!)) And that would be awesome for all involved! More staff means fewer mistakes (in theory) should get through to publication, because the staff won't be overwhelmed. More staff means creators get interacted with more frequently, so they're not twiddling their thumbs waiting for confirmation/feedback. Creators getting paid more means they can afford to not have a second/third/fourth job, and can instead concentrate entirely on creating new wonders for us all to enjoy - and can get them to us sooner, too! And more people getting paid/paid more is good for the economy, in that it means we can spend more! And that's good for those selling goods/services, because... ....well, it all feeds into itself, doesn't it?
So, now we've established that humans are social creatures and that Tokyopop wants more customers and more customers is a good thing, correct? Wonderful. Moving on.
Now, those who aren't thinking ahead to the next lesson are going, "WTF Klawzie, what does that have to do with Tokyopop's new layout?" Anyone who doesn't take a moment to start crunching numbers together, go sit in the corner and come back when you've thought about it. No? Don't want to go sit in the corner? Delightful! I knew I could count on my students. You're all very bright and I am fond of you.
Where was I?
Oh yes - How could Tokyopop attract new customers, or increase sales in existing customers?
Free stuff tends to do it, but free stuff is kind of expensive... We're looking to increase sales not increase spending.
Now, what else is sort of free? ...Why, internet stuff is sort of free! The cost of a server and hosting and web design and blahahahawhatever is significantly lower than promotional items (such as the manga samplers they used to print to hand out at Cons).
First step: Create a website. Okay, done.
Next step: ...messageboards? Why, yes. Messageboards increases traffic to the website and gets fans talking about the series.... But how to make it better....
Third step: ...why not encourage the creators of their OEL/OGM (original english language/original global manga - for those at home who aren't down with teh lingo) series to hang out there on occassion? That'd do two things - increase interest in the OGM line in general, and also keep people talking about these series that they have to wait longer for than the Asian manga they're used to! Brilliant. Impliment. And... accomplished.
What next? How do you keep people coming back to Tokyopop frequently? How do you keep them talking about Tokyopop?
Well, what's hot on the internet right now? That's right: social networking websites, such as LiveJournal (hello!), MySpace, etc.
Why, if you get a manga/anime fan interested in your social networking site, many of them will be back every day! Several times a day! And they'll always see the words TOKYOPOP emblazoned across their computer screens! They'll tell their freinds, "OMG, U KAN UPLOAD UR OWN MANGA STORIEZ LOL" and attract even more people to the site and they too will have TOKYOPOP accounts and see TOKYOPOP on their screens and think of TOKYOPOP several times a day.
And that, my friends, is a Good Thing for sales.
Or, at least, it sounds like it would just about have to be.
I predict that Tokyopop is going to have to have problems with copyright infringement. Every social networking site does. They're going to have to be careful to police/moderate that. And I know it's going to have to crash at least once. I hope they've thought about that. Because when it crashes, they're going to lose several of their users who have the attention spans/loyalty of goldfish. And most of the other users are going to be angry because, "OMG I LOST MY INUYASHA FANFIC. THAT WUZ TEH OLY COPY I HAD OF IT IN TEH WURLD! *CRY* I WUZ GOING 2 PUBLISH IT IN JAPAN!!!!!!!!!111"
I say again: Lawl.
So class, let's review:
People are social creatures. Thus, on the internet, they're attracted to social networking sites. If you create one, people will flock to it. People flocking to your website increases your chances of sales (or else advertisers would give two craps less about buying adspace on websites). Increased sales are good.
Any questions? :3
I, still, have no particular opinion on it. It's already less-buggy (to my experience) than MySpace (which is the site it's most often compared to).
Right now, I just sit back and offer this as commentary on the whole thing:
Lawl.
On one hand, I'm hoping it gets all the airheads off the forums. They can share their manga and fanart and fanfic and short fic and blah and blah and blahblah through Tokyopop itself. Perhaps that'll reduce the number of people desperate for the pats on the head who come to the TP Forums. (Alternately, now that there are people who know that exists, it may increase the numbers of airheads on the forums. So this is either going to be very good or very bad.)
On the other, it's basically a social networking site. Whoever is going to have to moderate it had better be getting paid well, because it's already crazy. I feel desperately sorry for whoevers job that will be.
What many of the detractors don't think of is how good this could be for the company. Here, wait, let me get my public relations major hat on. *tpp* Okay. It's on.
Humans are, if nothing else, social creatures. Some of us require less social interaction than others to get through the week, but there are very few hermits happy to live off in the corners of the world that get little/no human traffic and eat grubs and crap to avoid having to interact with other humans. Even if we don't want to talk to someone, we generally like being around other people on occassion. (On the internet, this is called lurking. IRL it's generally termed 'freaking creepy' unless you're the guy ordering coffee and sitting off in the corner of Starbucks with a newspaper and being quiet and undemanding of the staff.)
So we've established that humans are social creatures, correct? Excellent. Let's move on.
Tokyopop wants more customers. Perhaps if they had an increase in customers, they could afford to pay their staff and their creators more! And maybe get more staff! ((Ooo, or maybe pay some of their interns so I could afford to be one!!!)) And that would be awesome for all involved! More staff means fewer mistakes (in theory) should get through to publication, because the staff won't be overwhelmed. More staff means creators get interacted with more frequently, so they're not twiddling their thumbs waiting for confirmation/feedback. Creators getting paid more means they can afford to not have a second/third/fourth job, and can instead concentrate entirely on creating new wonders for us all to enjoy - and can get them to us sooner, too! And more people getting paid/paid more is good for the economy, in that it means we can spend more! And that's good for those selling goods/services, because... ....well, it all feeds into itself, doesn't it?
So, now we've established that humans are social creatures and that Tokyopop wants more customers and more customers is a good thing, correct? Wonderful. Moving on.
Now, those who aren't thinking ahead to the next lesson are going, "WTF Klawzie, what does that have to do with Tokyopop's new layout?" Anyone who doesn't take a moment to start crunching numbers together, go sit in the corner and come back when you've thought about it. No? Don't want to go sit in the corner? Delightful! I knew I could count on my students. You're all very bright and I am fond of you.
Where was I?
Oh yes - How could Tokyopop attract new customers, or increase sales in existing customers?
Free stuff tends to do it, but free stuff is kind of expensive... We're looking to increase sales not increase spending.
Now, what else is sort of free? ...Why, internet stuff is sort of free! The cost of a server and hosting and web design and blahahahawhatever is significantly lower than promotional items (such as the manga samplers they used to print to hand out at Cons).
First step: Create a website. Okay, done.
Next step: ...messageboards? Why, yes. Messageboards increases traffic to the website and gets fans talking about the series.... But how to make it better....
Third step: ...why not encourage the creators of their OEL/OGM (original english language/original global manga - for those at home who aren't down with teh lingo) series to hang out there on occassion? That'd do two things - increase interest in the OGM line in general, and also keep people talking about these series that they have to wait longer for than the Asian manga they're used to! Brilliant. Impliment. And... accomplished.
What next? How do you keep people coming back to Tokyopop frequently? How do you keep them talking about Tokyopop?
Well, what's hot on the internet right now? That's right: social networking websites, such as LiveJournal (hello!), MySpace, etc.
Why, if you get a manga/anime fan interested in your social networking site, many of them will be back every day! Several times a day! And they'll always see the words TOKYOPOP emblazoned across their computer screens! They'll tell their freinds, "OMG, U KAN UPLOAD UR OWN MANGA STORIEZ LOL" and attract even more people to the site and they too will have TOKYOPOP accounts and see TOKYOPOP on their screens and think of TOKYOPOP several times a day.
And that, my friends, is a Good Thing for sales.
Or, at least, it sounds like it would just about have to be.
I predict that Tokyopop is going to have to have problems with copyright infringement. Every social networking site does. They're going to have to be careful to police/moderate that. And I know it's going to have to crash at least once. I hope they've thought about that. Because when it crashes, they're going to lose several of their users who have the attention spans/loyalty of goldfish. And most of the other users are going to be angry because, "OMG I LOST MY INUYASHA FANFIC. THAT WUZ TEH OLY COPY I HAD OF IT IN TEH WURLD! *CRY* I WUZ GOING 2 PUBLISH IT IN JAPAN!!!!!!!!!111"
I say again: Lawl.
So class, let's review:
People are social creatures. Thus, on the internet, they're attracted to social networking sites. If you create one, people will flock to it. People flocking to your website increases your chances of sales (or else advertisers would give two craps less about buying adspace on websites). Increased sales are good.
Any questions? :3