Kadokawa Corporation’s Dwango, the owner of major Japanese video and livestreaming platform Niconico, has launched a new domestic platform called Sapocia. Officially going live on March 23, Sapocia is a “fan community platform” targeting adults. Other than Japanese, the site is also available in English, Spanish, Korean, Thai, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.
According to an official announcement, Sapocia works as a space where artists and content creators can set up personal, paid fanclubs. Fans can follow their favorite creators and subscribe to paid programs to connect with them and view exclusive content. The platform hosts articles, videos, livestreams and ASMR, and seems to cater to otaku hobbies based on its dedicated VTuber, cosplay and idol categories.
It looks like users who register as content creators will be able to set up their own prices and membership tiers, as well as determine what perks subscribers of each tier will be eligible to. While Sapocia only has a handful of creator fan clubs currently registered (presumably belonging to affiliates), the developers are currently preparing a dedicated inquiry form through which anyone can apply for the screening process.
With Niconico having cracked down on adult content and even closing some of its dedicated portals, Japanese users are happy to see a new alternative that will allow mature content. However, like with many such platforms, there is concern about mainstream payment methods potentially being blocked. At the time of writing, Sapocia supports payment via credit cards like VISA and MasterCard, including cards issued outside of Japan.
