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PR: Crunchyroll Sees Unprecedented Growth in Q1 2010


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MarzGurl



Joined: 22 Jul 2006
Posts: 142
Location: San Antonio, Texas
PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2010 11:30 am Reply with quote
This is quite positive. I can only hope that other licensing companies can use some sort of similar business model and find a way to make it equally as profitable. The only problem is that other studios also go the distance to release a dub, which is expensive. I see that being a hinderance, but I would hope that something like this could help them, too (maybe Bang-Zoom! ? ).
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TatsuGero23



Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Posts: 1277
Location: Sniper Island, USA (It's in your heart!)
PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2010 12:35 pm Reply with quote
Great news to hear. And Funi seems to be waking up a bit too. Maybe in part to these reports. But now I'm seeing a few more adds from Funi on other non-anime sites (mainly game sites which is smart in my opinion) so lets hope these 2 continue to grow. Also I wonder if G4TV helped CR or not in advertisements. Granted it was only 2 or 3 plugs for CR but they were all positives plus from their more popular show too.

Now if they could both just make a better browser to surf their content. CR is nice when looking for current stuff but when you feel like just browsing their stuff, unless you know what your looking for, its a pain. Ditto for Funi.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 24126
PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2010 1:03 pm Reply with quote
I wish Crunchyroll's "unprecedented growth" was translating into new simulcast pick-ups. They only managed to snag 4 new titles for Spring of 2010, which is less than they got for Winter 2010 and Fall 2009. Not a good trend.

Hopefully, this news may make them more attractive to Japanese license holders in the future.
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skafreak51



Joined: 13 Feb 2009
Posts: 212
PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2010 1:09 pm Reply with quote
Wow, in a time when anime (and mostly everything else on earth) is going downhill, it's great to see them doing this well.
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15545
PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2010 2:07 pm Reply with quote
Hopefully, they won't screw it up like the people running Hulu seem to be doing and start forcing you to subscribe.
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hissatsu01



Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 963
Location: NYC
PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2010 2:18 pm Reply with quote
The thing about this press release is that you can't tell anything about how profitable they are from it. Revenue ≠ profit. They could be turning a healthy profit or hemorrhaging cash - the press release would be exactly the same. Without figures other than percentages there's no way to tell. Same thing with "unprecedented growth." It sounds impressive, but doesn't actually mean anything other than they've grown more this past year than in previous years. As a relatively young company in a market sector still in its infancy, that's not particularly remarkable.

It was big news when Hulu managed to achieve profitability this year. Given Crunchyroll's taste for bombastic press releases, I have little doubt we'll hear them crowing quite loudly when (and if) they reach that point. Until then, nearly content-free press releases that only speak of page views and percentages don't give me any reason to believe that they're not operating in the red.
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_V_



Joined: 13 Apr 2009
Posts: 619
PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2010 4:11 pm Reply with quote
why did Bang Zoom openly declare that it is impossible to profit off of online videos, when Crunchyroll has been doing better than many R1 companies the pats 5 years?

If anything, this goes further to prove that "DVD" (or Blu-ray) isn't really the primary medium of anime anymore.
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter
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Joined: 02 May 2006
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PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2010 5:00 pm Reply with quote
Probably the success of December's $20 Paypall rebate which also paid dividends in March when people like me paid for the next 3-month period. Which would be why they are running the promo again so soon.

If traditional DVD licensors see a profit to be had in simulcast licenses as a side business and start competing with Crunchyroll than this will be a very short-lived "victory". FUnimation has apparently already moved into their territory with their Noitamina simulcast licenses (which they offer for free), and I wonder if some other possibilities of DVD licenses have blocked CR from picking up shows they would have before. It's not like Baka no Test or Dance of the Vampire Bund were picked up by CR last year, were they already in talks to possibly license them before the season started?
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
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PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2010 5:02 pm Reply with quote
_V_ wrote:
why did Bang Zoom openly declare that it is impossible to profit off of online videos, when Crunchyroll has been doing better than many R1 companies the pats 5 years?

If anything, this goes further to prove that "DVD" (or Blu-ray) isn't really the primary medium of anime anymore.


How do you know that Crunchyroll has been doing better than many R1 companies? The only time I've seen a monetary amount attributed to Crunchyroll, it's because of investors (usually Japanese) pouring money into them.

I don't think they've ever made a statement considering their profitability.
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Mr. sickVisionz



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 2175
PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2010 9:02 pm Reply with quote
Megiddo wrote:
_V_ wrote:
why did Bang Zoom openly declare that it is impossible to profit off of online videos, when Crunchyroll has been doing better than many R1 companies the pats 5 years?

If anything, this goes further to prove that "DVD" (or Blu-ray) isn't really the primary medium of anime anymore.


How do you know that Crunchyroll has been doing better than many R1 companies? The only time I've seen a monetary amount attributed to Crunchyroll, it's because of investors (usually Japanese) pouring money into them.

I don't think they've ever made a statement considering their profitability.


At the same time though, investors wouldn't be pouring money in if it looked like a cash drain.

It may not be profitable but it could be getting close to it. There is one critical thing that separates CR from other similar sites: subscriptions. Every one else is going solely off of ads, which probably pay pennies or less per view. CR has that and they also have people paying $4-7 a month like clockwork. I wonder how many hundreds or thousands of ad streams you need in a month to generate $4-7 in revenue?
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
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Location: IL
PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2010 9:26 pm Reply with quote
Mr. sickVisionz wrote:
Megiddo wrote:
_V_ wrote:
why did Bang Zoom openly declare that it is impossible to profit off of online videos, when Crunchyroll has been doing better than many R1 companies the pats 5 years?

If anything, this goes further to prove that "DVD" (or Blu-ray) isn't really the primary medium of anime anymore.


How do you know that Crunchyroll has been doing better than many R1 companies? The only time I've seen a monetary amount attributed to Crunchyroll, it's because of investors (usually Japanese) pouring money into them.

I don't think they've ever made a statement considering their profitability.


At the same time though, investors wouldn't be pouring money in if it looked like a cash drain.

It may not be profitable but it could be getting close to it. There is one critical thing that separates CR from other similar sites: subscriptions. Every one else is going solely off of ads, which probably pay pennies or less per view. CR has that and they also have people paying $4-7 a month like clockwork. I wonder how many hundreds or thousands of ad streams you need in a month to generate $4-7 in revenue?

How many times does it take a person viewing a stream before s/he decides to buy the DVD box set, which would be a lot more than $4-7 dollars?

They're two completely different approaches. Of course, Crunchy has to charge subscription for the brand new episodes of weekly anime, as well as high quality video, but FUNi is focused on moving DVD sets.
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Mr. sickVisionz



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 2175
PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2010 9:39 pm Reply with quote
^ Awesome post but how does any of that have any effect on CR potentially being profitable?

Megiddo wrote:
How many times does it take a person viewing a stream before s/he decides to buy the DVD box set, which would be a lot more than $4-7 dollars?

I think the state of the US anime industry says that number is insanely high.
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eyeresist



Joined: 02 Apr 2007
Posts: 995
Location: a 320x240 resolution igloo (Sydney)
PostPosted: Mon May 03, 2010 11:14 pm Reply with quote
I'm sure CR is not yet profitable, but it's a standard strategy in order to corner market share (e.g. it's what Amazon did). They are increasing their customer basis and revenue stream, and will ease over into profitability in a few years.

I appreciated the little warning at the bottom of the press release, to the effect that "statements concerning the future may turn out to be untrue, depending on how the future turns out."
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J. Kudo



Joined: 20 May 2009
Posts: 65
PostPosted: Tue May 04, 2010 1:18 am Reply with quote
Kudos to Crunchyroll. Cool

Now, how long till they become distributors of DVDs? Razz I really, really want to watch both seasons of Natsu no Arashi on DVD. Wink
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ConanSan



Joined: 13 Jun 2007
Posts: 1818
PostPosted: Tue May 04, 2010 1:19 am Reply with quote
Good for them.

Shame I dun trust them as far as I throw them.
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