Founded in 2012, headquartered in Los Angeles with key global operations in Seoul, Tapas Entertainment is one of the fastest growing digital publishing platforms of webcomics and novels in North America. Over the past ten years of operation, Tapas has amassed over 9 million monthly active users and boasts 9.5 billion total page views, hosting content from over 68,000 creators. Notably, 63% of the site’s top 30 most popular comics are produced by female creators, which is unusual for the industry. Tapas Media partnered with Kakao Entertainment in 2021 to expand its impact on the world of digital storytelling.

Before signing on with Braze, the marketing team at Tapas struggled with several aspects of measuring onboarding data. It was difficult to track information such as click-through rates (CTR) for outgoing messages; in addition, they lacked clear data surrounding retention. Their customer data lived in various, siloed tools, which affected their ability to send out relevant messages such as recommendations. With users checking out Tapas content across the globe, the team also needed to be able to localize messaging to provide a relevant experience.

So they turned to Braze. Tapas had two primary goals in mind when making the decision to adopt Braze:

1. Boosting user retention

2. Leveraging data to make informed, strategic decisions surrounding customer communication

Leveraging Insights to Up Retention

Operating on a freemium model, most content on the Tapas Entertainment site is free to start, with users having the option to wait 24 hours for the next chapter. They can also immediately unlock the next piece of content by buying “Ink,” Tapas’ form of currency. Because “Ink” is Tapas’ most important source of revenue, it’s critical to capture a new reader’s attention and take action to convert them from a free user to a paid one.

To better convert users during the onboarding experience, Tapas leveraged Braze Canvas, our customer journey orchestration tool, to create a personalized experience based on user behavior from the moment they sign up. With this first-party data, they are able to send push notifications based on action-based triggers as well as recommend relevant content to each recipient.

Tapas also optimized messaging at every step. During onboarding, they track the drop-off rates at each stage of the funnel. The Marketing team develops and tests messaging hypotheses by looking at conversion data and separating the control group from the experimental group. When they find an event with a low conversion rate, they iterate the hypothesis verification process with new A/B testing on a continual basis. Initial results have been outstanding—Tapas discovered that the users who make their way through an entire onboarding campaign are twice as likely to be retained.