Forum - View topicNEWS: ICv2: Digital Comic Books Triple in 2011 to US$25 Million
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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See this Viz? GET OFF YOUR @$$ AND MAKE AN ANDROID READER! (seriously, they have a friggin Nook SPECIFIC channel now, but no Android, I DL'd the Nook Android app and TRIED to buy their manga through it: no dice) I also think this is the big takeaway from the article: “The [digital] audience has become additive. This is not a replacement strategy like any other print medium, which is great.” And, for the near term with comics, I think this will REMAIN true simply because the bulk of the comics market is a COLLECTOR'S market. Those people will always need the physical book to COLLECT. People who just want to READ the material and enjoy it, should have an easier channel. |
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TitanXL
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25 Million is less than 1% of what the manga market made in 2011. When you look at it like that, it's kind of easy to see why manga companies are hesitant to even bother.
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agila61
 Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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Source? The August 2011 ICv2 estimate of the North America manga market for 2010 was $120m. So if North American manga was just 10% of the $25m, that would be 2% of the total North American market, or more if the total North American market continues to contract ~ if the North American manga market was 1/4 of that, that would be $6.25m, which would be 5% of the total North American manga market. For a market contracting by 15% in the preceding year (that manga market estimate is 2010, not 2011), a market segment that is 2% to 5% of the total market, showing rapid growth, and does not appear to be taking away from print sales does not make it "easy to see why manga companies are hesitant to even bother." |
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TitanXL
Posts: 4036 |
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I was speaking of the Japanese market, which is more against digital manga than the US audience is.
What exactly is the evidence for it not taking away from print sales, though? The guy at DC didn't really say. |
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agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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Then what does the "less than 1%" have to do with anything? I've seen a figure that international rights income altogether is about 20% of manga industry rights income. And obviously the North American market is just one of a number of international manga markets. What's relevant to "whether manga companies should bother" is the current market share and current rate of growth. If it happened to be presently about 10%, as ICv2 estimates for the market as a whole, and if it could keep up a growth rate of 300% per year ... then assuming stable print sales, that would be 25% of the market next year. And if it was around 3% instead for manga in particular, but kept up the same growth rate, that only delays that market share by a year. You can't ignore something that seems likely to be a quarter or more of one of your major revenue streams. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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Digital manga is at least 10% of the manga market, in Japan: "revenue for manga in magazine and book form having inched down for more than a decade — to ¥448 billion in 2008 from the peak of ¥586 billion in 1995" "the mobile version has manga booming again. In (2009), Japanese manga publishers raked in ¥32.9 billion in revenue, up 43 percent from the previous year and from next to nothing in 2003, when manga first became available by cellphone" http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/technology/03iht-manga.html?ref=technology&pagewanted=all So, 3-4 years ago, digital manga (in Japan) was 33/448, or 7.4% and the trends were: 1) Digital rising, 2) Print falling. All indications I have seen says that trend is continuing in the same way. So there's no reason for Japanese companies to completely dismiss digital dales, and considering the AMERICAN market, there's even LESS reason for American distros to not pay serious attention to the segment. Viz is obviously interested in this area, my issue is that they're chopping off a very LARGE portion of their potential market by not putting enough effort into the second largest (and gaining market share) platform. (For the record, Japanese digital manga market in 2008: 33 billion Yen = approx $428 million (at current exchange rate), that'd make digital comic sales in US about 6% of Japanese digital comic sales. Japanese overall sales in 2008 = $5.8 billion, total estimated US comics (all types) sales in 2011, $650 million, or around 10%, so digital is in line with print as a percentage of overall sales when you consider how new the market is) |
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agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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Its not always easy to know exactly how much effort a publisher is putting into a particular effort, since what they announce are the successes from their efforts, not the hours devoted to various ongoing ventures. It seems quite likely that the reason for the Nook getting featured alongside the iPad is that the iBooks format is an ePub file with Apple's DRM, and B&B is also an ePub file, with B&N's DRM. It could, indeed, be exactly the same ePub submitted to iBooks and B&N. Kindle, on the other hand, requires its own different formats. So it could easily be be that B&N came before Kindle despite more effort spent on the Kindle ~ just because once the iBook format was read, the B&N did not require very much additional effort. I'd not be surprised if that is an ePub 3.0 format, since complaints about ePub 2.1 and both comics and textbook layout were part of what led to ePub 3.0. That could well explain why its not yet announced for the B&N Android reader app, if the B&N Android Reader app is not yet updated to ePub 3.0. That would also explain why Viz were using "beta" software on a Nook Color 1.3 system ~ the Nook Color were not able to download and read the new multimedia ebooks that the Nook Tablet could read until the 1.4.1 update was pushed out last December. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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The Viz iPad manga app has been out for at least a YEAR http://mangabookshelf.com/blog/2011/03/05/platform-review-viz-on-the-ipad/ And I know people have been begging them for an Android app, "reading manga/comics on the device" was literally reason #1 that I bought a tablet and I WANT to pay for manga. (I'm not kidding, I continually follow news on manga apps WAITING for a legal option to read OFFLINE) I don't see how you can reasonably say they've been giving Android serious effort when you look at how long they've had to develop something. Especially if you note that the first non-iOS version is a platform specific, limited option for the Nook. I think the Nook is a great budget option, but why not at LEAST go with the Kindle? (I have neither of those, but I think the Kindle is more ubiquitous than the Nook if you're just arguing volume) Heck, I don't get why it's not available on the Nook app. My ASSUMPTION is that the Android devices are more easy to explore and remove the content from. But seriously, why not just follow the iTunes model and sell the things with SOME measure of DRM that maybe can be hacked or something because right now, they're just allowing people to get comfortable with using alternate means so that when it finally IS available, people won't care anymore and continue to pirate it. (There's plenty of Android scan-aggregator apps) Speaking for myself, the one reason I WANT a Viz app (heck, would prefer just PDFs) that I can buy from is because I WANT to support manga I like, not because I can't get it through other means. |
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ajr
Posts: 465 |
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Good news, everyone! |
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agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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There's the potential benefit of supporting a device ~ which is most obvious to us ~ and the prospective up-front costs. Until the introduction of the Kindle Fire, supporting the Kindle would be stuck with the built-in ereader for the Amazon format ebooks. And before the Pearl display, manga on the Kindles looked bad, even when it was B&W pages being displayed. The iPad is more open than the Kindle eInk readers, it has a great display for single page manga viewing, and the iPad user base has appealing demographics ... so going to the trouble of an app for the iPad makes sense as the first experiment. And if its the best case, one would wait until it starts to show signs of strong performance before looking to expand on that. And then B&N introduces an upgrade to the stock reader of their media tablets ~ that by appearances would seem to be an ePub3.0 capable ereader ~ well, if you can just repackage your existing iOS app editions and put them on the B&N book store, why wouldn't you? The upgraded ebooks from B&N started to roll out in November/December ~ Viz was teasing the expansion of their B&N electronic storefront in late January / early February. That seems a reasonably prompt reaction to the upgrade of the stock B&N ereader app. Given that Amazon has the success it has had with the KindleTab (aka KF), it would be natural for Viz to look to sell to the KF marketplace. But Viz would obviously prefer something that can work on the same underlying edition, which is likely to be ePub3.0, and so unable to be read on the stock KF ereader app. Now, that KF success was from a product launch in November, with the size of the success becoming clear in January. So January would be a reasonable time to expect work on supporting the KF to start. Expecting the effort to be completed by early February 2012 is, in my view, a bit of unrealistic expectations. And I expect that B&N will roll out an upgraded B&N Android app sometime this year, because not being able to sell their enhanced media ebooks into that market is leaving money lying on the table. But they've just had two big software rollouts, 1.4.0 to the NookTab and 1.4.1 to the NookTab and NookColor, and they still have unfulfilled feature upgrades for the NookColor, so I wouldn't necessarily expect it 2012Q1. |
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HeeroTX
Posts: 2046 Location: Austin, TX |
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Considering that the KF LAUNCHED with an exclusive agreement and content from DC comics, I'd say just the opposite. I realize that DC is bigger than Viz, but not having any content for the impending Kindle device when tablets had been in place for well over a year and it was KNOWN to be one of the most anticipated devices for the holiday season is either a lack of effort or an INCREDIBLE lack of foresight.
I'm not shocked that the Nook app is not compatible with the Viz releases, disappointed yes, but not shocked. And I'm not even saying it's B&N's responsibility to make it so (it SHOULD be consistent if they want to hang on to customers of the eBook space, but whatever). I'm saying VIZ has had well over a year to implement another platform BESIDES just iPad. IF they don't want to concede that space to the pirates (hint: they maybe already have) then they NEED to get their content out NOW. I'm serious, you can download Android apps TODAY that do exactly what I want a Viz app to do, except all the content is "free". Yes, I can even download directly to my device any chapters I want, one click no searching, "for free". If Viz waits too long, just like fansubs, that's going to be the "normal" for this space. And even if that will happen eventually ANYWAY, why not at LEAST get your money NOW. |
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agila61
Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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Well, that's where we differ, I guess. It sounds to me like internet hyperventilating to start throwing around hyperbole like that because Viz does not yet have a KindleTab app in the first three months that the device is on the market.
It has nothing to do with responsibility. Or with Viz for that matter. It has to do with a textbook store rolling out electronic devices in time for the Christmas season. They'd be insane to risk missing the ship dates for their NookTab and their NookColor upgrade in order to be sure that the Android app upgrade rolls out at the same time. That would be "INCREDIBLE lack of foresight."
On an emanga development grant from the government, perhaps? These things have to fund themselves, or else they are TokyoPop style visionary adventures that do nothing to keep the company in business. Its all well and good to engage in armchair business strategy, but its not like Viz's owners are going to give them a big pile of cash and say, "here, spend this developing emanga just in case the emanga market takes off next year". Indeed, if they indeed were able to roll out emanga for the Nook reader based on their already existing file formats for their iOS app, it seems like profits from the Nook emanga's will be part of what finances the development of the KF device that you are talking about, since it will be an appreciable notch up in their total market exposure with very little extra outlay. |
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