Hello everyone. Thank you for using Pococha!

In this blog, we’ll be announcing updates on some important features, and Producer Mizuta will be answering questions from Pococha users! Please read to the end.

Rank System Update

The 1.3x Support Point bonus, one of our short-term solutions for creating a fair Rank environment, went into effect on Sun Oct 3. Since then, we’ve been keeping a close eye on broadcaster’s ability to increase their Rank. 

Since the 1.3x bonus took effect, the average number of broadcasters ranking up has increased from 15% to 26%! This is now comparable to the 25% of broadcasters ranking up in Japan.

That being said, some of you may not be feeling the improvement depending on your fan support and coins. We’re going to do our best to keep an eye on the number of people able to increase in rank and adjust the multiple as needed.

Furthermore, we can finally announce when we plan to implement our long-term solutions!

The Long-Term Solution, separating the US & Japan Rank System into two distinct ecosystems, will take place at the end of December – about 2 ½ months from now. 

After this change occurs, US broadcasters will no longer be competing against Japanese broadcasters on their Rank Meter. We will continue to have the 1.3x bonus until this change occurs. 

Payment Period Update

Thank you for all the feedback you sent us about the length of payouts on Pococha. After listening to your concerns, we have decided to speed up the payment process!

Payments were previously processed only once a month, but will now be processed weekly. This will speed up the payout time to about 12 business days. 

Please note, after payout has been processed, it may take up to 3-5 days for the payment to register in your bank account. These changes will take effect at the end of October. 

New Items Update

We know our community is eager for new Items. I’m glad to announce they are finally here! Limited-time Halloween items were released Sunday Oct 17. We created seven spooky Items to get you in the Halloween spirit. 

Once they’re gone, get ready for more seasonal, holiday, and limited-time Items. 

Then, on Oct 23 we’ll be releasing 10 new permanent Items. These Items are very popular in Japan and we are excited for our US users to discover them!  

We plan to continue releasing new items every 2 weeks to every month. Let us know what kind of new Items you want to see. 

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Q&A from Round Table #2

Thank you to everyone who asked questions during the Round Table!

Daisuke Mizuta, Pococha’s executive producer, answered questions and comments from users.

We spent over 2 hours discussing upcoming changes to Pococha, user feedback, & answering questions. This was Daisuke’s second time meeting one on one with US users.

Daisuke Mizuta, Executive Producer

Here’s a look at some of Diasuke’s responses to user questions during the event:

Q1: Will Items with sound be arriving in the future?

Daisuke:

I have a pretty straight-forward answer for this question. Thank you for asking! We know this is a highly requested feature. I’m happy to say that we plan to bring Items with sound to Pococha very soon, possibly at the beginning of 2022. We want to take the time to ensure these will create the best experience for users. For example, there are many broadcasters who sing or perform karaoke. Items with sound may distract and disrupt these types of broadcasts.

Q2: Why don’t Red & Blue PocoBoxes reset every month? 

Daisuke:

Thank you for the question. The original purpose of these PocoBoxes is to encourage users to visit new broadcasters who have just joined the app. If we were to give red & blue PocoBoxes to everyone, then new viewers would end up visiting the higher-ranked broadcasters. We believe this would take away viewers from the new broadcasters who need them the most, and would defeat the purpose of those PocoBoxes. 

Q3: I’m a signed broadcaster, after my contract ends can it be up for negotiating?

Daisuke:

We are currently looking into ways we can change and improve our current programs with agencies. Our long-term goal is to make it so that there is no economic income differential between signed broadcasters and independent broadcasters – this is the way it is in Japan. We want Pococha to be equal for both kinds of broadcasters, with no favoritism towards either one. I would suggest reaching out to the specific agencies to ask about future plans. 

Q4: I am an independent broadcaster, is there a chance to become signed?

Daisuke:

Currently on Pococha users must decide if they want to be a signed broadcaster or independent broadcaster when they create their account. However, in the long run, we want to make it easier for users to switch between the two. We want it to be like switching jobs, you’ll be able to decide when you want to be independent and when you want to be signed. We plan to focus on creating this option in the near future.

Currently in Japan, there is no compensation difference between signed & independent broadcasters. In the US, we are providing some benefits to signed broadcasters as an incentive because the app is new. But we plan to create equality for both types in the long run. 

Q5: Instead of separating the US & Japan apps, why not combine them

Daisuke:

Thank you for bringing this up, I really like your perspective. I want to say that there is a world where having the two sides combined is a real possibility. I’ll use an analogy to economics to try to explain it in a way. Combining the sides would be possible if both sides had the same type of “spending power” as each other. If you think about economic theory, different “countries” have different things going on. Think about a developed country compared to a developing country. What we’ve seen is that if you combine a developed country with a developing country, we often see that the bigger, more developed country completely takes over the smaller one. 

Thinking about this analogy in terms of Pococha, we want to avoid having the Japan side, which has more users and has been around longer, from dominating the app and creating a situation where it is very hard for US users to compete. 

Q6: Can we get a translation feature?

Daisuke:

At this time since we are separating the US & Japan sides of the app, a translation feature is not a high priority. While we agree that the ability for users from different countries to understand each other is a good thing, we would want to ensure that the quality of the translation is of the best quality. Low quality translation may actually end up hindering communication and causing misunderstandings. Therefore, if & when we decide to implement a translation feature, we would want to spend a lot of time ensuring a high quality feature that increases positive communication on Pococha. 

 Q7: Can we get a split-screen video feature to use with fans?

Daisuke:

We’ve found that on other apps, quite often split-screen or “guest” features often take away communication between broadcasters and viewers. Often broadcasters focus on communication between each other instead of their viewers. However, a split-screen feature that focuses on increasing the quality of communication between the broadcaster and viewer is something that definitely matches Pococha’s philosophy. We would love to add something like this in the future!

Q8: Why do profile event rewards expire in the US but not in Japan?

Daisuke:

I have a very simple answer for this! The norm is for profile events to last longer. However in the US we were testing out this profile event and wanted to ensure it was a good fit for the US users before we made it permanent. The rewards were temporary in case we needed to stop holding profile events in the US. But we have seen positive results from this event and plan to keep it. Therefore our profile events will start to have longer/permanent rewards in the future. We’ll also look into the ability to retroactively give permanent profile rewards to those who won previously. I also noticed some users at the Round Table let us know that they preferred to have the profile rewards be temporary. We want to create lots of different types of events for everyone to enjoy.

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Thank you to all who attended Round Table, and for taking the time to ask thoughtful questions. We greatly enjoyed getting to hear your opinions, suggestions, & feedback.

We look forward to your attendance at the next Round Table event, be sure to RSVP!

-The Pococha Team