Aight, here's my thoughts bout gogo
I meant this website. So it's pretty much in a highly risky position where it can get taken down any time. Playing the blame game with the twitterati and the tiktokers ain't gonna solve anything, to be real honest.
I have some thoughts to share and I'm not sure if everyone agrees with them.
Firstly, the main problem is that this site is illegal. However, despite the nature, it's pretty good considering the database, features, UI and the focus on being a user-oriented and user-friendly website. So why not make this website legal?
Secondly, it's not only just the authors who wish to take down the website, the companies behind them are involved too. Heck, someone even asked on Google support to report. I won't be linking the page here, since it's Google
. Lots of publishing companies filed a report and currently there are 164 cases last time I checked. And it's not just the authors, even the translators and scanlators (from some to most of them) hate the gogo.
Main reason? Guess what it is. Money. The sole root cause for this precarious situation is money. I read somewhere in the comments that mangago is generating $200K (I don't know whether monthly or annually, but most likely annually). The publishing companies don't like that, since they are losing out on the income. I mean, technically, I understand, if I had a company and had pirated versions of the products I'm selling, I'd be pissed off too but also see to it why pirated versions are selling more and in which locations are they popular. Though, on the other hand, I heard there are third parties here collecting data from the users. I don't know much about this one and nor am I sure about this, but hopefully my extensions are protecting me online lol.
Rather than companies like Lezhin, Kadokawa, etc. the real ones suffering are the authors and the artists. The arts and entertainment field is fiercely competitive and realistically, it's hard to get a stabilized income unlike jobs. In fact, we don't have the right to complain when this site gets taken down.
Moreover, the translation and scanlation teams have a reason to be pissed off, because they did the work for free and somebody else is making money off of it without any effort. I'm not saying this for all, just a portion of them (there are some teams that profit off of the works too). Ironically, these groups are also at a risk too, just like the site, guess why. They drop the series they're doing to reduce the risk.
On the good side though, one team (Meraki or Leviathan scans, I think? I don't remember well) got recruited by a Chinese webcomics company for doing English translations, which is good.
And most importantly, us, the readers. Yes. We too are at fault in this piracy. Well, some of us do pay the coins in tapas, lezhin, etc. but for not all of them. I'm pretty sure the prices are high in Lezhin, since they put out high quality stories on their platform. Seems like only rich people can afford the comics over there.
I have a few ideas, but they are only ideal, naïve and probably hard to implement in reality. You are free to think of them as spiels from an air-headed person stuck in their own la-la land.
1. This site can be made legal. Hire people and sign contracts with the publishing companies to host the mangas. Divide the profits. Let them decide the terms, but the main creators should receive the most money. Please reduce the tax nonsense though. YouTube is a good example of this tax nonsense.
2. Adapt LINE Webtoon's system of fast pass but a better version.
3. Recruit the scans and trans groups and pay them for their work.
4. Have different plans for using the website as free (limited) and give membership benefits with different levels.
5. Set affordable prices like steam does. For example, the game OMORI is sold in the US for $20-$30 but in my country it's sold for 529 rupees, which is only $7-$8. Pretty sure the prices vary by country, so why not adopt this system as well? I find it fair.
6. Make an app, maybe?
I don't know, man. All in all, I'm too attached to this website because it's organized and it's easy to navigate through. If it gets taken down for real, I'll be devastated for sure but of course make do with other not so legal alternatives. Maybe tapas and other sites have already such similar systems which I mentioned.
Do let me know what y'all think of this. Sorry for writing a very long essay. Have a nice day!