Partner program terms

These terms apply to Inku’s partner program. By applying, you agree to them. They sit alongside Inku’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. If anything here is unclear, email app@inkujapanese.com before you share.

1. The program

Inku is operated by Bao Hua, a sole proprietor based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada (“Inku”, “we”). You apply with an Inku account. Bao reviews every application and can approve or decline it. Once approved, you are a partner and can create referral codes.

Each code is also a link: a code like YUKI works as inkujapanese.com/r/YUKI. A code credits you for the referral. It does not give the customer a discount, a longer trial or free Pro.

You take part as an independent partner, not as an employee or agent of Inku. You can’t make promises or sign anything on Inku’s behalf.

2. What earns commission

You earn 30% of each qualifying payment. A qualifying payment is a web subscription payment for Inku Pro from a newly paying customer you referred, made during their first 12 months as a paying customer.

• The 12 months start on the date of the referral’s first qualifying payment and end on the same date 12 calendar months later. Changing plans, cancelling and coming back, or paying another way doesn’t restart them.
• Commission is worked out on the amount the customer paid after discounts, less any sales tax or VAT reported to us for that payment. Payment processing fees are not deducted. Each commission is rounded to the nearest smallest unit of its currency (for example, the nearest cent).
• Newly paying means the customer had not paid for Inku Pro, on any platform, before they became your referral.
• A second annual term never earns. A renewal of a plan that lasts 28 days or longer does not earn if it is billed within 7 days before the 12-month anniversary. Weekly renewals earn up to the anniversary.

These do not earn commission:

• Free trials, and free accounts that never pay.
• Purchases made through the App Store or Google Play, even when the customer signed up through your link.
• Your own purchases, and purchases on accounts you control.
• Payments after the 12-month period ends.

When a payment is refunded or charged back, we reverse its commission in proportion to the amount returned. If that commission was already paid, the reversal is taken from your next payouts. A cancellation without a refund does not reverse anything.

3. How referrals are counted

• Link window. When someone opens your link in a browser, Inku remembers your code in a first-party cookie for 30 days. If they create an Inku account, or buy Pro on the web, in that browser within those 30 days, they become your referral.
• Last real click wins. If a person opens more than one partner’s link, the last link they opened before signing up gets the credit. Bots, link previews and prefetches are not clicks.
• A code beats a link. If a customer enters a partner code in Inku, that code wins over any link.
• 90 days to pay. The referral’s first payment must happen within 90 days of when they became your referral. A trial that converts after that doesn’t earn.
• Credit is permanent. Once someone is your referral, later links and codes don’t move them to another partner. We change a referral only to correct a clear error, and only before any payment is made on it.
• Unknown stays unknown. If we can’t see your link or code, the customer isn’t credited. We don’t guess referrals from IP addresses, devices or email addresses.

Your dashboard shows totals only: clicks, sign-ups, paying customers and earnings. We never show you who signed up or paid.

4. Holds and payouts

A commission becomes ready to pay when both of these are true:

• 30 days have passed since the payment, so refunds can come through; and
• Inku has received the money for that payment from its payment provider.

Payouts run once a month, on the 15th, by PayPal or Wise to the account email you give us. Balances stay in the currency your referrals paid in and are paid in that currency. We never add different currencies together. A balance is paid when it reaches the minimum for its currency:

Smaller balances roll to the next month. For any other currency, we’ll contact you to agree how to pay it. Keep your payout email current in the partner portal.

You are responsible for reporting and paying any tax on what you earn.

5. Disclosure and conduct

Tell your audience that you earn a commission, every time you share your link or code. Put it where people will see it before they click, in plain words such as “I earn a commission if you subscribe through my link.” A code on its own is not a disclosure. Follow the advertising and disclosure rules where you and your audience live, including the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s guidance on endorsements.

You must not:

• Refer yourself, or create accounts or purchases to earn commission.
• Stuff cookies: set Inku’s referral cookie without a person choosing to open your link, for example through hidden frames, images or redirects.
• Send spam, or share your link where the rules of that place don’t allow it.
• Pretend to be Inku or Bao, or suggest that Inku endorses you beyond this program.
• Make misleading claims about Inku’s prices, trials, discounts or features.
• Bid on “Inku” or “Inku Japanese”, or close variations, in paid search ads.

6. Suspension and leaving

We may suspend or close a partner account for abuse or a breach of these terms. While an account is suspended, your links still open Inku, but new referrals and payments don’t earn. We can reverse commissions that came from conduct these terms don’t allow. Commissions earned within the rules are still paid.

You can leave at any time by emailing app@inkujapanese.com or deleting your Inku account. When you leave, or we close your account for a reason other than a breach, any positive balance is paid at the next payout run, whatever the minimum.

7. Changes to these terms

We may change these terms. We’ll email partners before a change takes effect and publish the new version here with its date. Every referral keeps the terms of the version that applied when it was credited to you, so a change never lowers the rate or shortens the earning period on referrals you already have.

8. Contact

Questions, disputes about a referral or payout, or anything else: app@inkujapanese.com. These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Alberta, Canada, as set out in Inku’s Terms of Service.