Remember in 2020 when everyone was:
- Clickbaiting (YouTubers).
- WRONGLY assuming it would change the game.
- Gassing up animelog.
- Hoping it would do good for the industry.
And everything in between? Because I remember it like it was yesterday.
I don’t know whether it was a case of people disliking Crunchyroll and Funimation so much that they were deluded into believing animelog would succeed.
Or whether it was just pure optimism and excitement.
But it was never meant to get to that level for obvious reasons.
Let’s talk about it.
The reasons:
1. FREE is not a good business model
I could end the post right here. This is the reason why animelog was doomed to fail from the beginning.
Of course, when we had clickbait videos hyping it up it wasn’t surprising why a small portion of people got riled up, feeling like animelog was somehow gonna take down Crunchyroll just because of feelings and emotions.
In the same way, you can’t live off fresh air, you can’t expect a business to thrive on a FREE supported model, even if that model has the intention to drive AD revenue.
Major studios like Toei Animation, Nippon Animation, Tezuka Productions, and others joined forces back in 2020 to do exactly that.
They made big announcements and claims about using ad revenue through YouTube of all places (facepalm) to support animelog into the future.
Also, animelog had set its self a bunch of goals it wanted to achieve over the years.
Those goals were:
- Offer 3000+ anime titles by the year 2022.
- Have at least 300 million viewers per month by that point in time.
As we can see in 2024, they failed miserably and I don’t say that to poke fun, but to acknowledge how they didn’t even reach an inch close enough for this to be a reality.
Big goals need pragmatic actions, and the FREE model with the goal of ad revenue to support it on a third-party platform is the opposite of pragmatic.
It’s flawed beyond reason.
We’re talking about a streaming business trying to be profitable through a platform like YouTube given the expenses of the streaming business in general.
That would be like Netflix and Hulu setting up shop on YouTube, uploading tons of their original content, and expecting NOT to be out of business by the end of the year given how much thinner their margins would be.
But of course, we are talking about the worst part of the community promoting that and stirring shit up for an extra dollar, or just an extra 1000 views on a social network so not much could be expected.
Yet the reactionary part of the community talked their shit
In the article I wrote about the bullshiters hyping up animelog in 2020, I said a couple of things.
Here’s an important part worth mentioning here:
“YouTube ads are absolute suicide. All those anime studios sharing that small piece of pie with each other is stupid.
If they decide to monetize it this way they’ll soon learn it’s bad business. Not because ads don’t make money, but because it’s incompatible with the industry’s business model.
Toei Animation and everyone else, big or small, can provide as much “free” anime as they want. They can fill up the YouTube channel until it explodes with anime if they choose.
At the end of the day – money needs to be made, or else it stands NO chance of displacing anime streaming companies.
And playing within the realms of YouTube’s system isn’t the smartest idea.” – Theo J Ellis
If it was such a profitable and smart idea, Amazon, Netflix, and Disney+ would be doing it.
But of course, they’re not doing it because you’ll always make less on someone else’s platform.
2. It offers nothing new
Animelog’s concept is good if you have all the money in the world to keep running it, and that seemed to be the case until it shut down before 2024.
But despite that fact, animelog will never become a major profit for all fo those studios assuming they still collectively support animelog, and it will never “take over” the industry or shut out Crunchyroll like people claimed.
That was true back then, and that’s true in 2024 with Crunchyroll and Funimation being under Sony’s umbrella.
Animelog in a nutshell looks like this:
- Upload classic anime to YouTube.
- Upload certain shows to YouTube.
- Upload anime trailers, clips, etc.
And that’s it.
There is nothing new or fundamental about what those 30 studios have done. The only fundamental thing is the fact that 30 studios decided to back it in the first place.
And the fact those studios have BIG names.
This is why there was BIG hype around animelog, but hype can only last so long if there are no legs for the idea to stand on when all is said and done.
This is the aftermath of animelog.
This was further backed up by the voice of reason (via Twitter)
Been introduced to AnimeLog, a Japan-based, US-funded, Youtube channel planning to offer anime for free.
Some are saying it’s the “Death of Crunchyroll/Funimation”.
It absolutely isn’t. https://t.co/4OK6EBYeOe
— Canipa | THE GOD YOU WORSHIP IS DEAD (@CanipaShow) August 17, 2020
Right now, it’s only available in Japan, with stuff like Future Boy Conan and a bunch of kids anime. But they plan to add subtitles to some of their releases.
But here’s the thing: Youtube ad revenue will never make up for the amount lost in licensing.
— Canipa | THE GOD YOU WORSHIP IS DEAD (@CanipaShow) August 17, 2020
Even the largest Youtube channels would struggle to make as much as Crunchyroll or Funimation through ad revenue. And while a load of outlets are spreading this news with screenshots of One Piece, Dragon Ball Super, and My Hero Academia, there is zero chance those will be on it.
— Canipa | THE GOD YOU WORSHIP IS DEAD (@CanipaShow) August 17, 2020
The largest source of revenue for anime today is overseas licensing payments from streaming services. The “dream of anime studios getting together and releasing all their anime for free on Youtube” is a dream that kills at least half of all revenue for the whole industry.
— Canipa | THE GOD YOU WORSHIP IS DEAD (@CanipaShow) August 17, 2020
Right now, the American anime industry is one controlled by Sony, AT&T, Netflix. Refusing to license to these companies and releasing it on your own through Youtube is a terrible choice for anything other than a cheap ONA or short film.
— Canipa | THE GOD YOU WORSHIP IS DEAD (@CanipaShow) August 17, 2020
This isn’t a small industry anymore. If you’re gonna make a startup, it’s got to fill a niche. Like how RetroCrush is releasing classic anime. And AnimeLog will likely do the same with unlicensed classics.
But it’s not going to “take over the industry” like some claim/hope.
— Canipa | THE GOD YOU WORSHIP IS DEAD (@CanipaShow) August 17, 2020
And as we can see, animelog officially shut down their channel
And that was right before the year 2024 came into the picture.
Ctunchyroll is owned by Sony, they continue to gobble up the industry, people continue to subscribe, and of course, piracy continues to rise.
If Japan wanted to truly own the market, they would keep everything in-house and start their own streaming platform instead of a watered-down product that relies on YouTube of all things for a streaming business.
Until that happens:
- Piracy will continue.
- Crunchyroll will dominate.
No amount of mental gymnastics or stirred up controversies will change those facts which have remained facts since 2020.
Simple as that.
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