Can Gank make it easy to get paid for cosplaying?

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by Samuel Pordengerg Nov 28, 2022 News
Can Gank make it easy to get paid for cosplaying?
The Gank booth at the Anime Festival Asia in Suntec. (Photo: Yahoo Gaming SEA)
The Gank booth at the Anime Festival Asia in Suntec. (Photo: Yahoo Gaming SEA)

The AFA returned to Singapore last weekend from 25 to 27 November at the Convention and Exhibition Centre, with the usual fare of figurines, cosplay, and concerts.

For the first time, a Singapore-founded content membership platform called Gank joined the show, bringing popular content creators such as Singapore's Rurusama to meet and interact with fans.

In the midst of the Pandemic, Gank was established to allow creators to accept donations, manage memberships and sell merchandise to their fans.

SFW only content can be posted for subscribers. Gank does not charge commission fees for using its platform, instead relying on a premium subscription model.

Gank brought in cosplayer Rurusama to meet fans during the Anime Festival Asia in Suntec. (Photo: Yahoo Gaming SEA)
Gank brought in cosplayer Rurusama to meet fans during the Anime Festival Asia in Suntec. (Photo: Yahoo Gaming SEA)

Starting out in gaming, but branching into other areas

Darrell Sin, the Regional Partnership Director, said that they wanted to go into gaming services because they wanted to play with friends.

Sin and his team looked at a gated monetisation system similar to Patreon or Ko-fi as a result of the plans to target non- gaming services. Content creators can create membership tiers for their fans in exchange for exclusive content on these platforms.

Content creators incur high transactional fees on top of the commission given back to the platforms when they use gated monetisation platforms in the US.

Sin said that it was important for its content creators in Southeast Asia to have this problem fixed. Local banks are used to roll out the payments that creators receive.

Sin explained that cosplayers and streamers are more familiar with marketing themselves online than the general public. Selling merchandise and photo sets is important to these users.

The platform has over 8,500 creators on it.

The long run

Be it an established or an up-and-coming creator looking to make it big, Gank wants to expose them to new members of the niche and specific audiences it targets through an easily- accessible platform.

The creators have small accounts that help them withdraw their earnings. The creators on the platform will get between 20,000 and 30,000 per day.

If you want a better meal, you will have to pay, but bread and water are free for everyone.

The monthly premium service, Boost and Boost+, is the main source of revenue for the company. The plans cost $5 and $11 each.

Content creators who purchase these plans get more storage for their digital goods, as well as the ability to set up voice and video calls with their fans and priority customer support.

Currently, boost and boost+ are the main ways that Gank is sustaining itself. Sin said that it will be looking to monetise its platform in other ways in the future.

When it hits mass volume or a critical point in the number of users on its platform, it will look into introducing more benefits such as quick withdrawals, similar to the Twitch partner programme.

After a number of offline conventions in the region, AFA was the first physical Singapore convention.

The company wanted to promote its brand by giving fans the chance to interact with the staff and creators who were present.

Sin shared that Gank is looking to expand into other Asian countries such as Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and India. It has a user base in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.

Student contributors worked with Yahoo Southeast Asia to write this story.

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