What It Is
Bessatsu brings the bessatsu, the special supplement of a Japanese manga magazine, to the web. It publishes a free magazine (the main book) alongside an original visual series read by subscription (the bessatsu). The magazine brings search traffic and return visits, and the originals bring subscription revenue.
The Problem
Talk about manga and anime floods communities and social media but scrolls away quickly. Choosing what to watch or read means digging through many places, and organized introductions are hard to find. Meanwhile, original visual content has grown, but little of it comes with a story.
Bessatsu solves both on one site. The magazine builds up searchable introductions, and the originals lay a story over each image so one issue reads as a short story.
Who It Is For
- Manga and anime fans choosing what to follow: people who want to scan currently running series with images and find where to watch or read
- Readers who like pictures with a story: people who enjoy short visual stories read page by page
- Readers in several languages: people who want the same content in Korean, English, Japanese, or Simplified or Traditional Chinese
Core Flow
- Read the magazine: read introductions to webtoons, manga and anime with image galleries, then follow the watch links.
- Sample an original: read the first six pages of an original issue, shown on the home page, for free.
- Keep reading: subscribe to read the remaining pages and the ending.
- Binge back issues: catch up on earlier issues in the archive, newest first.
Key Features
- Magazine: introductions to webtoons, manga and anime with image galleries, watch links and series tags that lead to the next title.
- Original viewer: scan an issue as a grid, tap to read the story laid over each image, and page left and right. Swipe on phones; drag, use the arrows or the keyboard on PCs.
- A different genre every issue: romance, mystery, fantasy adventure, sci-fi, everyday comedy and music coming-of-age stories rotate, and each issue picks a genre different from the last.
- English audio teasers: recent issues on the English pages come with narration recorded by a native speaker.
- Five languages: Korean, English, Japanese, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese.
- Comments and likes: reader reactions come in through the family's shared widgets.
Product Decisions
- Free pages match what the home page shows: non-subscribers can read the first six pages, the same number of cuts shown on the home page, so what you see on the home page and what opens on the issue page never disagree.
- Locked pages are truly locked: from page seven on, neither images nor text reach a non-subscriber's screen. Blurred images are too easy to undo.
- What is sold is access: Bessatsu does not claim copyright on the images and defines what subscribers buy as access to the pages. Downloads and usage rights are not part of the benefits.
- Original characters and worlds only: fan works recreating existing titles never go into paid products. Homage stops at art style and genre, cutting copyright risk from the start.
- Material from the mood of the moment: each new issue starts by looking at that week's search trends and the season. News is never quoted; the issue turns what people are actually going through into a character's day.
- No selling inside the app: in the mobile app, store policy means prices and payment buttons are hidden and readers are pointed to the web subscription.
Revenue Model
A single $5 monthly subscription, with no yearly plan. Subscribing opens every page to the ending, early access to new issues, originals without watermarks, subscriber videos and every back issue. Each issue's ending and the growing archive are the reasons to stay subscribed.
Next Hypotheses
- In which genres readers of the six free pages most often subscribe to see the ending.
- Whether readers who arrive through the magazine move on to the originals.
- Whether English audio teasers lift subscriptions among English-language readers.