Forum - View topicNEWS: Rakuten Internet Services Company Acquires Viki Streaming Site
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configspace
Posts: 3717 |
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One thing that struck me with Viki from what I understand in a past interview and is that content is different depending on your location. It's essentially geo-restrictions but hiding awareness of it. I hope this changes, or at least is optional, so that global really does mean global.
If they're going to integrate with Rakuten somehow, like advertising products or promotional items from Rakuten, I also hope they have a global option too. Currently their online markets are all segregated (like Amazon, but more so) |
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agila61
 Posts: 3213 Location: NE Ohio |
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One quote in this piece touches indirectly on the main point ~ how much money the streaming advertising brings in will have a major impact on how much trouble licensors will go to, to meet the desires of streaming licensees. Viki's basic business model is to license content for streaming outside of its country of origin, but its a patchwork quilt as far as what regions it gets outside of the country of origin ~ for instance, a lot of the K-dramas are North American only, while others are the Americans and Southeast Asia, some of the US-originated content is Southeast Asia only, and etc. The more lucrative licensing to Viki becomes, the more common "streaming everywhere outside the home country" will become. However, they have a "sweat equity" loophole where someone who is working as a volunteer in subtitling a series often does not need to be from the region that the content is licensed for. |
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mdo7
 Posts: 6400 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Beside Variety reporting on this, another site confirmed this to be true. I know about Rakuten, they have a lot of good reputation of going global unlike most Japanese companies. Rakuten doesn't have Galapago Syndromes unlike most Japanese companies. Also this surprise me when I read the article.
I hope Rakuten acquiring Viki doesn't effect people watching Korean, and Asian dramas. I hope Rakuten could maybe try to negotiate with Japanese companies to get more J-dramas on Viki because J-dramas are not exported in huge number unlike their K-drama counterpart. On Dramafever and Crunchyroll there is less then 9 J-dramas on there. #of J-dramas: Dramafever: 2 J-drama total Crunchyroll: 5 J-dramas total (current) Viki only has 11 J-dramas (from my observations), so we need more J-dramas. If Rakuten can pick up Japanese variety shows which feature J-pop idols and J-celebs that would be nice too since Dramafever has Korean variety shows (Strong Heart, Running Man, We got married, Barefoot Friends, 2 days 1 night, Hwasin: Controller of the heart), and KBS World Official Youtube page has variety shows from Korea that people around the world can watch like Hello Counselor, Happy Together, Invincible Youth, Immortal Songs, Gag Concert, Let Go! Dream Team, and Mama Mia. You're not going to see Japanese variety shows officially being uploaded on Youtube. So if Rakuten can get Japanese variety shows on Viki, that would be awesome, nice exposure for J-pop idols and J-celebs. I can find over 150+ K-dramas on Viki, Dramafever, and Crunchyroll. So I hope Rakuten could maybe use their influence to help pick up more J-dramas to stream for international audiences (K-dramas popularity allowed Taiwan, Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Singapore to exported and subtitled their dramas outside of Asia). I've noticed Taiwan has also increase and escalating their dramas exporting outside of Asia (evidenced by seeing Dramafever is picking up more Taiwanese dramas and Viki has seen lots of Taiwanese drama lately), so it looks like Taiwan is trying to replicate it's own Hallyu.
Actually people in Europe including UK can now watch K-dramas on Viki according to a UK-based Hallyu site. I hope Rakuten doesn't do any serious effect on Viki's European service because I know in Europe K-pop is getting a little more mainstream over there thanks to Gangnam Style and BigBang winning the EMA back in 2011. I like to remind people that Europe doesn't have Hulu or Dramafever yet. I'm not sure about Crunchyroll and K-dramas in Europe. Does anybody living in Europe (Spain, UK, France, Germany, Italy) can confirm to me if Crunchyroll has K-dramas/Asian dramas over there? I need to know this. Rakuten, if you can help bring more J-dramas to Viki, I'll be very very happy.  Korean dramas was the reason why the Hallyu/Korean Wave is happening today and more people go to Korea then Japan. If more J-dramas (both modern and historical) can get stream outside of Asia, then a lot of people will get to know Japan better not only anime/manga, dramas can help get a person to know Japan better.
EDIT: Turns out Europe is going to get more K-dramas according to Viki blog. The last announcement for more K-drama coming to Europe came out not long ago. Last edited by mdo7 on Thu Sep 05, 2013 6:06 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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la_contessa
Posts: 200 Location: Pennsylvania |
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I really like Viki (except for the fact that a c-drama I was watching vanished when I was 2/3 of the way done, with no explanation >_>), so I'm excited about the opportunities this presents. I agree with the above comments about j-dramas, too. I really dislike watching fansubs, because I want the content creators to get money and make more dramas, so I would LOVE to see more j-dramas legally streamed.
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brucepuppy
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I'd rather like to see japan stick with its anime-manga image and maintaining it so it can be better and last longer,and hopefully go more globally.
After all j dramas quality is not up to compete yet. Not that I care about asian dramas though. Soap opera and telenovelas are enough for me. |
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Spotlesseden
Posts: 3514 Location: earth |
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i'm waiting for Viki Roku app.
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mdo7
Posts: 6400 Location: Katy, Texas, USA |
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Yes, and to add that a lot of people that upload fansub J-dramas or fansubs J-pop MV and probably fansub anime on Youtube, it get taken down. Japan is really strict on piracy when their Korean counterpart are not, for example the fansub MV of Taeyang-I need a Girl has over 27 million views on Youtube and YG Entertainment didn't take it down at all. This is why J-pop couldn't breakout like K-pop did on a global scale. Also having J-drama on Viki and Dramafever can help Japan get it's own "hallyu". Sadly, Japan is not doing like what Korea is doing now. I'm hoping Rakuten acquiring Viki can mean something for J-drama because Korea is having their best decade.
I've watched Itazura Na Kiss, the J-drama on Hulu and Autumn Concerto, a Taiwanese drama on Dramafever and I don't find it any different from K-drama counterpart. How is J-dramas quality not up to par, may I ask?? Also I love anime and manga but I want more J-dramas to get exported and shown outside of Japan and Asia because a live-action drama can help anime/J-fans to get to know Japan from a better perspective. J-dramas can help us understand Japanese culture better then anime. That's how people got to know Korea and it's culture, K-dramas. As a matter of fact, a lot of people wouldn't be studying ancient Korea and Korea history if it hasn't been for K-dramas. Also J-dramas can give J-pop idols that are in the dramas and J-celebrities exposure outside of Japan and Asia just like how K-drama gave Hallyu stars (both actors/actresses and K-pop idols) exposure outside of Asia. Oh please about the western soaps and telenovela, they can't even dominate against Asian dramas. Even K-dramas outdone telenovelas in Latin America and Mexico. |
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