History
Tapas was founded by San Francisco-based Korean entrepreneur Chang Kim and Young-Jun Jang in 2012,[5][2][3] initially under the name Comic Panda.[7] The Wall Street Journal described Kim as a "serial entrepreneur"; he was once in charge of Samsung's mobile content strategy, and he sold his Korean blogging company TNC to Google[5] and also worked for Google on Blogger.
Kim became a fan of webtoons during his college years,[5] and came up with the idea of an open-publishing platform after wondering if there was a single online location to read all the webcomics he was a fan of. Kim drew parallels to YouTube, a site where people can upload their video content and earn money, and noted that such a model for comics hosting was already successful in South Korea.[8] The site's name later changed to "Tapastic";[7] Kim based the name on the snack food tapas, to indicate the site provided bite-sized entertainment,[5] and the word "fantastic". As of 2014, the company was based in Santa Clara, California, USA.
By 2015 the company had received $3.4 million USD in backing from both American and Korean investors, including from South Korean internet company Daum Kakao and from former Facebook Chief Technology Officer Adam D'Angelo.[5] This included $2 million USD of Series A funding which Tapastic received in 2014 through a partnership with Daum Communications. Through this partnership, Tapastic hoped to bring over successful Korean titles to see if they could find success in the United States market, such as Like a Wolf, one of the most popular webcomics in South Korea.[9][10]
In April 2016, Tapas Media released a new mobile app, titled "Tapas". The app was announced on a freemium business model; according to Tapas Media, around 10–20% of the works were offered for free – either directly free, or unlockable as rewards for engagement with the app – with the rest of the works requiring payment. CEO Chang Kim specifically cited Candy Crush as a model for the app, for its freemium model and for providing three to five minutes of engagement, which he said they were trying to mimic with the amount of content in each "bite-sized micro chapter".[11]
On April 17, 2017, the company announced that it had changed its website name to Tapas, redesigning parts of their website in the process.[12] Tapas Media changed its terms of service the same day: the addition of a "Right of First Refusal" clause spurred controversy among the service' users. According to this clause, users who wanted to sell the rights to works that had been hosted on Tapas had to offer them to Tapas Media first, and then negotiate with the company "in good faith". Users could only sell rights to a third party if Tapas declined to buy the rights or if 30 days passed without agreement. Tapas released a statement in May 2017, saying that the Right of First Refusal was "not to take any rights away or steal your content. The purpose is to help you." Tapas stated that the change of terms was to prevent creators accepting bad deals and instead to allow them to use Tapas' connections to "get the best deal possible."[7] However, Tapas removed its right of first refusal requirement on May 18, 2017, due to the poor community reception.[13][14]
On May 11, 2021, South Korean company Kakao Entertainment announced that it had acquired Tapas Media for $510 million. The acquisition is now subject to government approval.[1]
