Crunchyroll Sees Unprecedented Growth

[Chris Beveridge]

After FUNimation's recent crowing (http://www.mania.com/funimation-serves-8-million-anime-views_article_122107.html) about their views and growth in the streaming market, it's little surprise that Crunchyroll would step up to the plate to try and take the discussion back to showing themselves as the leaders of the streaming market...

More... (http://www.mania.com/crunchyroll-sees-unprecedented-growth_article_122315.html)

[hissatsu]

Wake me up when they announce that they're turning a profit. Or even breaking even.

[WilliamG]

Wake me up when they announce that they're turning a profit. Or even breaking even.

I would have to agree with your statement hissatsu. Quoting percentages of growth without any monetary basis to coincide with it seems pointless to me. For example, if Crunchyroll stated that they made X amount of dollars during the first quarter of last year and they made Y amount of dollars more during the same quarter this year, then the percentages of growth would mean something.

William G.

[Quarkboy]

Wake me up when they announce that they're turning a profit. Or even breaking even.

I would have to agree with your statement hissatsu. Quoting percentages of growth without any monetary basis to coincide with it seems pointless to me. For example, if Crunchyroll stated that they made X amount of dollars during the first quarter of last year and they made Y amount of dollars more during the same quarter this year, then the percentages of growth would mean something.

William G.

You should see the graphs in their presentations with no labels or tic marks on _either_ axis...

[something]

I would have to agree with your statement hissatsu. Quoting percentages of growth without any monetary basis to coincide with it seems pointless to me.
I agree the percentages don't mean much - first quarter 2009 was when they'd just barely started their "freemium" model. The views and unique hits are still quantifiable and interesting, though.

Crunchyroll has a link to a survey for premium members up on their website. I took the time to fill out a very lengthy reply detailing both negatives and positives. I encourage others to fill it out as well. Let them know why you're a member but also let them know that there are problems as well, and what they need to do to keep you a member.

I have no idea if they'll do anything with it, but I post enough about the pros and cons of CR here that I had quite a lot of thoughts I could pull right off the top of my head and convey.

[The Great Bear]

You should see the graphs in their presentations with no labels or tic marks on _either_ axis...

"Today we're going to talk about this squiggly line. Consider it a piece of abstract art."

[Chris Beveridge]

Note that the article has been changed from:

serving 28.1 million video views

to

serving 21.8 million video views

[The Great Bear]

Note that the article has been changed from:

serving 28.1 million video views

to

serving 21.8 million video views

Fortunately for CR, the typo was not in the first number :P

[hissatsu]

You should see the graphs in their presentations with no labels or tic marks on _either_ axis...

Was it anything like this? (http://youtube.com/watch?v=M1owcncKCHg)

[FUNiOP]

That's great, so where are all the simulcasts this season?

[SetisDagre]

Wake me up when they announce that they're turning a profit. Or even breaking even.

Prioritizing growth over profitability reminds me of the dot com boom days. And we all know how that turned out.

[malazar]

It was an interesting read. With the sharp decline in the number of simulcasts, including a couple popular ones, I would be interested to see how this quarters numbers end up vs. last quarter when the time comes.

[Ryos]

Anime is becoming more mainstream? Compared to what?

[Betenoire]

Anime is becoming more mainstream? Compared to what?

Pogs and newspapers. :catgirl:

[Quarkboy]

Anime is becoming more mainstream? Compared to what?

Pogs and newspapers. :catgirl:

And it's catching up to snap bracelets and fax machines!

[The Great Bear]

Anime is becoming more mainstream? Compared to what?Pogs and newspapers. :catgirl:And it's catching up to snap bracelets and fax machines!

To be serious for a moment, the problem with claiming mainstream status is even if their figure of 5.5 million unique visitors is correct, the population of just the United States alone is now over 300 million. So, that's less than 2% of just the US population. We have to assume, of course that that figure of 5.5 million includes people watching in Europe and around the globe. So, the percentage goes much lower.

Anime is a niche entertainment medium. It would be nice if it had a larger and somewhat more diverse in tastes viewing base, but it is unlikely that it will achieve "mainstream" status anytime soon, especially with the way things are going presently.

[Betenoire]

To be serious for a moment, the problem with claiming mainstream status is even if their figure of 5.5 million unique visitors is correct, the population of just the United States alone is now over 300 million. So, that's less than 2% of just the US population. We have to assume, of course that that figure of 5.5 million includes people watching in Europe and around the globe. So, the percentage goes much lower.

Anime is a niche entertainment medium. It would be nice if it had a larger and somewhat more diverse in tastes viewing base, but it is unlikely that it will achieve "mainstream" status anytime soon, especially with the way things are going presently.

Though aren't there prime time shows that don't draw this? Certainly many cable shows don't yet the stigma isn't quite there for those.

[The Great Bear]

To be serious for a moment, the problem with claiming mainstream status is even if their figure of 5.5 million unique visitors is correct, the population of just the United States alone is now over 300 million. So, that's less than 2% of just the US population. We have to assume, of course that that figure of 5.5 million includes people watching in Europe and around the globe. So, the percentage goes much lower.
Though aren't there prime time shows that don't draw this? Certainly many cable shows don't yet the stigma isn't quite there for those.

Of course, and one could make the argument that prime time shows that draw such poor ratings are also hardly mainstream anymore, since they have so few people watching them.

As for cable, that's a different story, as not everyone has cable (even if it just seems that way), and many of those shows are targeted towards niche audience segments to begin with. They are not trying to capture the large audience of an American Idol or whatnot.

Of course, with greater and greater market segmentation, as marketers and programming chiefs slice and dice the audience ever more trying to target the right shows (and their accompanying commercials) to the right audiences (consumers), it is getting increasingly harder to talk about mainstream at all. The top rated TV shows of today get around the same audience viewing numbers, but the percentage of the audience that they attract is far lower than it was 10, 15, 20, 30 years ago. There has been a steady decline in audience share that any one program attracts over the past several decades.

Today's audience landscape is not what it was in 1984, let alone 1954.

[Buckeye]

Wake me up when they announce that they're turning a profit. Or even breaking even.
That is becoming the bigger issue here. Not that getting more viewers will hurt that objective, but they need to do that to stay afloat.

[malazar]

To be serious for a moment, the problem with claiming mainstream status is even if their figure of 5.5 million unique visitors is correct

That's probably as many viewers as hockey gets.

[The Great Bear]

To be serious for a moment, the problem with claiming mainstream status is even if their figure of 5.5 million unique visitors is correct

That's probably as many viewers as hockey gets.

Exactly. And the current state of the NHL right now financially shows you how mainstream that is.

[malazar]

Exactly. And the current state of the NHL right now financially shows you how mainstream that is.

Yeah, it kinda is a similar situation. For years, the NHL has tried to become "mainstream" to the point of making many questionable decisions to try to further that goal much to their financial detriment and a degradation of the game. Like anime, it has a niche market of hardcore fans in the States that never really grows in any significant manner.