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NEWS: Crunchyroll Gets US$750,000 Investment by TV Tokyo


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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 24034
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 9:04 am Reply with quote
Fellistowe wrote:
I wonder how many other people are in a similar boat?


I'm going in the opposite direction with respect to my CR subscription renewal. It's coming up in May, I think, and I'll be upgrading to premium membership because I'd like to check out some of the K-dramas.
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britannicamoore



Joined: 05 Dec 2005
Posts: 2618
Location: Out.
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 9:38 am Reply with quote
Thats amazing. What was it? This time last year or the year before and most people hated what CR stood for. Now its raking in the cash. Simply amazing.
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Power2All



Joined: 10 May 2008
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 10:04 am Reply with quote
Its more like: "stupid people empower stupid people" then that it does good.
CR's attitude on forums is ridiculous, stealing ideas from others, implementing it as their own work (bullshit ofcourse, but who will stop them), and now they get a financial injection... Just wtf xD
CR is no business, atleast, it is now, but it started as a hobby project sofar I know.
Anyway, good luck to them I guess...
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hissatsu01



Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 963
Location: NYC
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 10:38 am Reply with quote
Oh, to be a fly on the wall during the negotiation of deals like this. I for one would love to see what Crunchyroll's books look like, though nothing like that will ever happen without them going public. Because based on even the roughest of estimates, I don't see how they can do much more than break even, and that's a stretch. For the sake of comparison, iTunes is still not profitable after many years of operation, and even with huge name brand recognition and popularity. But iTunes is there to support hardware sales that are Apple's bread and butter. What does the comparatively minuscule Crunchyroll have to fall back on, not to mention the much higher bandwidth costs of streaming video. I've yet to see any evidence that this business model isn't voodoo, having more in common with late 90's internet boom stuff than anything resembling a profitable business plan.
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Dargonxtc



Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 4463
Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 11:13 am Reply with quote
I wish they gave a percentage. If 750k bought a 49% minority share of Crunchy then that means the company is likely doing terrible and is desperate for the cash. If it bought 15-20% of the minority share then that would mean that Crunchy is actually "probably" doing okay for itself as far as small businesses go.
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samuelp
Industry Insider


Joined: 25 Nov 2007
Posts: 2242
Location: San Antonio, USA
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 11:34 am Reply with quote
Dargonxtc wrote:
I wish they gave a percentage. If 750k bought a 49% minority share of Crunchy then that means the company is likely doing terrible and is desperate for the cash. If it bought 15-20% of the minority share then that would mean that Crunchy is actually "probably" doing okay for itself as far as small businesses go.


Well, remember the initial capital investment from venrock was more than 4 million... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crunchyroll
So unless they'd been losing money hand over fist for a year it's likely no more than 20%.
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Dargonxtc



Joined: 13 Apr 2006
Posts: 4463
Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 12:26 pm Reply with quote
samuelp wrote:
Well, remember the initial capital investment from venrock was more than 4 million... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crunchyroll
So unless they'd been losing money hand over fist for a year it's likely no more than 20%.


Actually, I wrote that with that in mind (I couldn't remember if it was 3 or 4 mil). Which is why a percentage would be an important indicator. It is really not that hard to lose money hand over fist these days. Saying simply because they got 4 million two years ago that it is probably a 20% stake is really nothing more than a guess. Hope you're right though.
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Mr. sickVisionz



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 2175
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 1:00 pm Reply with quote
Good news imo. Even back when I was heavy into fansubs, TV-Tokyo broadcasted a sizable chunk (probably around 50% or higher depending on the season) of what I was interested in and ended up watching. The more TV-Tokyo stuff the better since it's probably what I'm interested in anyways. It's great to see more JPN producers/broadcasters jumping on board the CR train.

As far as streaming sites not being profitable, one thing that drastically separates CR from places like Hulu and YouTube is that CR focuses on paid subscriptions and ad-supported streams while other sites only do the ad-supported streams.
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TsukasaElkKite



Joined: 22 Nov 2005
Posts: 4000
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 1:02 pm Reply with quote
So, CrunchyRoll started out as a pirate site, but decided to do a heel face turn and go good. In addition, they ask for money for it. That sounds fishy as hell.
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hissatsu01



Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 963
Location: NYC
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 1:05 pm Reply with quote
Mr. sickVisionz wrote:

As far as streaming sites not being profitable, one thing that drastically separates CR from places like Hulu and YouTube is that CR focuses on paid subscriptions and ad-supported streams while other sites only do the ad-supported streams.


And iTunes is what? Aside from not profitable.
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Spotlesseden



Joined: 09 Sep 2004
Posts: 3514
Location: earth
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 1:58 pm Reply with quote
i think CR is making money. Unlike other stream, CR has income from subscription fee too. $750k probably doesn't give TV tokyo that much of the stake.
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Tiamats Reviews



Joined: 06 Jan 2008
Posts: 12
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 4:07 pm Reply with quote
Try getting money OUT of CR though.

I was one of the first to sign up for CR premium when it was announced, only to find that almost all of the anime was barred for my country. I complained and wanted a refund, since there was nothing to indicate whether i could watch the shows or not. In the end i had to recover my money through a paypal dispute, and CR didn't even respond to that. PayPal gave up waiting for them and instead refunded my cash.

Even now when you sign there's no indication as to whether the country your signing up from is able to view the series. It should state whether you can or can not.

As for it being successful, not really. It's subs are still pretty pathetic, i've seen speed subs that were better. And BostTV kicked CR's arse when it came to alround quality. Shame the Japanese companies didn't join up with BostTV.

CR will never do more than break even, no other site that has tried the format (and no CR arent the first) has lasted more than a few years.

Frankly when they die a death i'll dance a jig and throw a party to the demise of trash
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Mohawk52



Joined: 16 Oct 2003
Posts: 8202
Location: England, UK
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 4:28 pm Reply with quote
Real life is stranger than fiction. Stand and deliver! Laughing
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bayoab



Joined: 06 Oct 2004
Posts: 831
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 5:17 pm Reply with quote
Shiroi Hane wrote:
TheHTRO wrote:
if CR eventually starts showing only TV Tokyo broadcast anime, then this will become a problem

Doubtful that would happen as TV Tokyo doesn't do any of the ecchi stuff that is on of CR's mainstays.
Surprisingly, AT-X, the one who broadcasts things like Queen's Blade and Seikon no Qwaser is owned by the overall parent company TV Tokyo.

hissatsu01 wrote:
For the sake of comparison, iTunes is still not profitable after many years of operation, and even with huge name brand recognition and popularity.
Is this an example of headline contradicts article or is the writer making an assumption about what "break-even" actually means?
Article wrote:

Regarding the App Store and the iTunes Store, we're running those a bit over break-even, and that hasn't changed,


But it seems nobody really knows what is going on inside these internet based companies.
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TJR



Joined: 13 Jul 2009
Posts: 223
PostPosted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 6:49 pm Reply with quote
Power2All wrote:

CR is no business, atleast, it is now, but it started as a hobby project sofar I know.


CR was a capitalist venture from the start. "Shinji" and his "hobby" was nothing more than a facade to lure in the kiddies, and it worked.

The founders were top execs at Hot or Not (another capitalist venture that hit it big - the founder/owner of Hot or Not is also an investor in CrunchyRoll), and as you might guess, they aren't personally interested in anime. Rather, they recognized its potential (i.e. via the proliferation of torrent/streaming sites, blogs, and forums) as another social phenomenon that could attract big time interest from outside investors.
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