Recently we announced a new update regarding user’s ability to access other countries.
This update is being implemented to help combat some recent increases in behavior that could create an unfair environment for our users.
What is changing?
The expected date of the update will be sometime in June.
After this update, only users who are registered in the US will be able to watch US broadcasters. This also means that US users will not be able to watch broadcasts of users who are registered in other countries.
This change will increase the security and integrity of competition in each country.
Recently we have seen an increase in the amount of scam-like behavior that is intended to try and cheat the system by taking advantage of the ability to visit Pococha in other countries.
This behavior can negatively affect the competition in US by artificially inflating the Rank Meter, making Events unfair, creating toxic broadcast environments, and so on.
Why is it changing?
The US app has some of the best & largest benefits for broadcasters and viewers. This is why many users from other countries often try to abuse the system by creating fake US account.
For example, a broadcaster who lives in Japan or India may create a US account and try to receive all their support from their original country still.
This broadcaster is trying to take advantage of the great perks in the US, but they do not have much real support in the US. We feel this is not fair to broadcasters who do live in the US.
We want programs such as the Refer A Friend program, Top Broadcaster Bonus, Daily Login Coins, etc to continue to be offered to our US users. If they were to continue to be abused by cross-country users, we may have to stop them.
This is why we believe the better action is to restrict the ability for users to access Pococha in other countries.
Additionally, we believe that it would be a more fair environment for viewers to only have to compete against other viewers in their same country.
The Pococha app in Japan has been around for longer, and there are lots of much “older” viewers who could create unfair situations if they support US broadcasters.
In the original notification announcing the restriction, we included a sentence that said the reasoning was due to a language barrier.
While this is one of the many reasons for the change, it was not the only one. The other reasons, stated above, were mistakenly left out of the notification. We apologize for any misunderstandings or confusion this caused.
What about my favorite broadcasters or viewers from other countries?
However, this does mean that some US broadcasters may lose support that comes from non-US viewers.
This is why we are making this announcement in advance, so that communities can plan ahead for the change.
We also understand that this change will prevent users who enjoy watching broadcasters in other countries from doing so.
We do want Pococha to be an open place for all to discover many different cultures. However we decided currently it is more important to protect the security and integrity of competitions.
We encourage users to stay in contact and continue communicating with international friends by other means.
Thank you for reading this article!
We hope it has helped you understand the reasons for why we are making this change, and how it will help protect the security and integrity of our competitions.
Our mission is to create the most secure competitive environment for our users.
The expected release of this update will likely be around mid-June. After that point, users will not be able to access broadcast, broadcaster profile, or any parts of the Pococha app that are not in the same country as they have registered.
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