Soudanbako is a "question-gathering service with monetization."
You can naturally monetize your activity through question-and-answer communication with your fans.
To put it simply using other service names as a reference:
These comparisons may give you a good idea of what it is.
Normally, anonymous question services like question boxes or Marshmallow treat each submission as having equal value.
For influencers who receive many submissions, it can be difficult to read through everything, and high-priority submissions can get buried.
That's why Soudanbako introduced "Super Letter," a feature that allows tip-attached submissions.
Using the Super Letter feature, users can attach an optional amount as a tip to their submission, letting fans express their feelings of "I really want you to answer this" or "Please answer soon."
We also added a feature called "THANKS" to let fans express their "thank you for answering" feelings — by sending a tip after receiving a reply.
By incorporating "tips," which have become popular on YouTube and are becoming mainstream, into a question-gathering service,
we believe we can make communication between influencers and fans more active and build a closer relationship.
Some people who aren't comfortable writing for note or blogs may find it easier to answer questions and consultations from fans.
Using fan submissions as writing prompts is also a perfectly valid approach.
An "answerer" is a user who can accept questions and consultations and receive tips.Currently, only users with 10,000 or more Twitter followers can become answerers.
Anyone can now register regardless of Twitter follower count! (2023.09.12)
The original restriction was based on the hypothesis that influencers attract the most submissions, and by limiting the scope of support while the service grows, we could build a more user-friendly service.
A secondary effect was impersonation prevention, stopping bad actors from impersonating well-known individuals to collect tips.
Questions and consultation submissions from fans are displayed in a timeline format.
By default, this timeline is publicly visible regardless of whether submissions have been answered.
This makes it easy for fans to understand that "there are so many submissions that not all can be answered," which helps them feel at ease with unanswered submissions during busy periods.
"Super Letter" is a feature where the person asking attaches an optional tip amount (100–50,000 yen) to their submission to "make it stand out."
Since it is purely a feature for "standing out," you are not obligated to answer submissions you don't want to respond to.
Note that the tip is considered received even if you do not answer.
📌 About 6% of all submissions are Super Letters.
Therefore, to receive more Super Letters, the first step is to increase the number of submissions so more fans feel motivated to say "I want this one answered first!"
Writing in your profile that you prioritize Super Letters is also effective.
Promoting your Soudanbako across your social media with "I have a Soudanbako!" is important for increasing submissions.
You can also configure automatic periodic announcement tweets from the settings page.
You can also set a minimum tip amount for Super Letters from the settings page.
If a 100-yen Super Letter feels like too little, we recommend setting a minimum.
"THANKS" is a tip that lets the person asking express their "thank you for answering" feelings.
It embodies the feeling of "Thank you as always — here's a little something for your coffee," and is sent in the form of symbolic gifts like "Beer," "Steak," or "Champagne."
📌 Since THANKS can be sent by anyone for any answer, the more people who see your answer, the higher the chance of receiving more THANKS.
Therefore, sharing your answers on Twitter at the same time you post them is an effective strategy.
Soudanbako continues to develop features to ensure it remains a comfortable service for answerers.
We have taken maximum measures against harassment, which is commonly heard about with "anonymous question services."
By default, Soudanbako is not set up like "Question Box" or "Marshmallow" where "only answered submissions are shown" — instead, it's set up like a "YouTube Live Chat" where all submissions are visible.
While this also encourages Super Letters by showing "there are this many unanswered submissions," it also makes users aware that their submission is visible to everyone, which makes it harder to send harassing messages carelessly (social accountability theory / transparency principle).
In fact, Soudanbako appears to have overwhelmingly fewer harassing submissions compared to other question services.
Soudanbako can be configured to allow submissions without login,
or set to require a Twitter login before submitting.
In that case, the mute feature described below can be used more effectively.
For even stricter settings, there is also an option to restrict submissions to your Twitter followers only.
If a user sends spam or harassment, you can mute that user's submissions.
The reason it's called "mute" rather than "block" is that by default, Soudanbako shows all submissions (like a YouTube Live Chat), so submitters can see that their submission was delivered.
Showing "You are blocked" would leave a bad impression, so instead we use a mute that makes the submission appear normally to the sender but invisible on your end.
Even so, if you don't want a particular submission to be visible to everyone, you can delete just that submission from the timeline.
Using AI (ChatGPT), we created a filter that checks whether a submission may be harassing or offensive, and if so, converts the expression to something positive and further translates it into cat-speak.
(The inspiration was the Harry Potter spell "Riddikulus," which transforms the fear-inducing Boggart — a creature that takes the shape of one's greatest fear — into something comical, removing fear and stress.)
The tips you receive will be credited as 90% of the purchase amount minus a payment processing fee of 3.6%.
This payout rate is considerably higher than other services like YouTube.
(For example, if a Super Chat is sent on YouTube from an iPhone, only about 50% reaches the creator.)
With the aim of making the service user-friendly for influencers, we prioritize adoption over profit.
Upon withdrawal, a withdrawal fee (0.25% + 450 yen + tax) will be deducted from the withdrawal amount.
You can check your current undrawn balance and update personal information related to withdrawals on the "Withdrawal" page.
For any other questions about the service, please check the "FAQ."
If your issue is not resolved there, please contact us via the "Contact page."
Here are some Super Letter examples.
Some are used to stand out, while others are mainly sent as tips for things like birthday congratulations.
Here are some THANKS examples.
You can receive THANKS even for answers to free submissions.
