Kodansha, Shueisha, Shogakukan Invest in MyAnimeList Through Third-Party Allotment

by ImperfectBlue
Feb 17, 2021 11:02 PM | 52 Comments

MyAnimeList Co., Ltd (MyAnimeList) announced on Thursday that the company plans to issue new shares, increasing its capital by a total of 1,200 million yen (approximately US$11.33 million). Japanese publishing companies Kodansha Ltd. (Kodansha), SHUEISHA Inc. (Shueisha), Shogakukan Inc. (Shogakukan), and MyAnimeList parent company MEDIA DO Co., Ltd. (Media Do) will collectively implement a third-party allotment and underwrite half of this amount.

MyAnimeList plans to invest the funds obtained from the third-party allotment to accelerate expansion of its platform, and will focus on accessibility for new and returning users, increasing information exchange, strengthening connections between users and Japanese content holders, and improving site performance. The company's immediate plans to achieve these goals include implementing infrastructure changes to increase speed and support advanced UI/UX features, multi-language support for databases and user lists, iOS and Android application improvements, and user communication tool enhancements.

Digital content distributor Media Do acquired MyAnimeList in January 2019, and since then the anime and manga database and social networking website's userbase has grown from approximately 10 million monthly active users to approximately 18 million in over 230 countries. MyAnimeList's content database includes over 250,000 entries added and maintained by users, with over 375,000 associated reviews and recommendations.

Kodansha is the largest publisher in Japan. It was founded in 1925 and currently publishes Weekly Shounen Magazine, Nakayoshi, and Monthly Afternoon, among others. Kodansha's manga titles are published in English by subsidiary Kodansha USA.

Shogakukan was founded in 1922 and publishes a variety of media including manga, literature, non-fiction, and DVDs. Manga magazines published by the company include Weekly Shounen Sunday, Big Comic, and Betsucomi.

Shueisha was established as Shogakukan's entertainment-related subdivision in 1925, but became an independent company the following year. It is perhaps best known for its Jump line of manga magazines, which includes Weekly Shounen Jump, Weekly Young Jump, and Jump SQ.

Source: Press Release

Companies

20 of 52 Comments Recent Comments

I really hope MAL is using funds for a good, that will improve users experience with MAL.

Feb 26, 2021 1:08 AM by Gaichi

Let's kiss manga profile pictures and manga pictures in general goodbye. Anyway, happy for MAL I hope this partnership is for the better.

Feb 19, 2021 2:23 PM by Napok

I'll be more than happy to work as an Spanish translator for the site :)

Feb 19, 2021 11:19 AM by buuhhu

Great news! Now, do something about the 100 x 125 forum photo limit. There should be a way for us to upload any photo and have it auto-resized just like every other website has.

Feb 19, 2021 7:13 AM by Monotonous

Now I hope MAL adds decimals in the scoring section and a direct reply option in the forums cuz it's troublesome quoting anyone you wanna reply to.

Feb 19, 2021 6:48 AM by Rickydory123

Some people here are acting like moderators grow on trees. :'D

Almost all mod positions are currently accepting applications so if you're interested you can check this thread.

Feb 19, 2021 6:26 AM by DeadlyRaven

Tyrel said:
Extra money =/= more mods/better mods. All mods are voluntarily doing it for free.

I don't think MAL will improve much in that.

Despite the need for more database mods, especially for anime, and the fact that queue becomes longer every day, frankly, as leading admin Kineta hasn't done nothing in last few years about that.

She even announced 2 - 3 times that recruiment process is going on, and I myself applied, and I am sure I wasn't the only one, yet nothing.

...

Dark mode, faster loading, errors - all those would be nice, but really, having more database mods is what we need the most.

It seem to me that the only thing Kineta is interested nowadays, when it comes to site, are those secret Santa, MAL Valentines, and similar stuff.

Feb 19, 2021 4:22 AM by Ajvisor

Great news. MAL is a part of my daily life and I'm hoping these major investors will improve the site. Meaning faster load times, improved UI, a complete mobile app that does everything and not just updating your anime list, and overall better features to make the website even more enjoyable to use. And of course, no more of the website going down for no reason.

Feb 19, 2021 1:10 AM by takkun_

How will they understand anything on this website when it’s not KONICHIWAAAAA!!!!!!!!????

Feb 18, 2021 9:29 PM by PUSSYMANPENIS

lkevsan said:
You better upgrade this site. I have been here for 10 years and looks pale.

no no no, don't change how MAL looks in general. I'm still here exactly because this website looks plain, simple and pale thus aren't trying to offend my eyes

Feb 18, 2021 9:04 PM by Wilhelmina

Maybe they'll update the site and let us a decimal rating system.

Maybe they'll use that money to revamp the site and let light novels be their own category.

Maybe they'll hire dedicated database mods so the manga entries I added to the database over 3 years ago will finally be approved.

Feb 18, 2021 5:16 PM by removed-user

Hopefully this will end up being good news and mal will get better from it

Feb 18, 2021 4:58 PM by ManWild

As long as it isn't like MAL's "App" (kek it opens browser pages on the default android web browser, where you're not logged in, when clicking on entries)

Feb 18, 2021 3:46 PM by FullyCharged

lol at the people thinking the money will actually be used to improve the site

Feb 18, 2021 2:51 PM by Robinne

Wow. I wasn't expecting the big three Japanese publishing companies of Kodansha, Shogakugan,and Shueisha to invest in MAL. Hopefully it would lead to more manga and light novels being distributed on MAL's website.

Feb 18, 2021 1:10 PM by AddaeAkono

Genoard said:

Fadedboar said:

There's always anidb i suppose, also i don't recall them having recaptcha either

Anidb would've been great had they not caved in to a controversy surrounding a certain trap and changed "gender" field of their character database to "gender identity". They didn't even bother to correct the values for other existing characters after this virtue signaling, so now they have cross dressers who refer to themselves as female labeled with "gender identity: male", lol.

I was a bit confused about that one, since i only saw one case where it was actually changed in a way that fits the field name.

Regardless, it works better as an actual db of anime than mal or anilist do.

Feb 18, 2021 1:05 PM by Fadedboar

You better upgrade this site. I have been here for 10 years and looks pale.

Feb 18, 2021 12:46 PM by lkevsan

Hope this funding can improve the website as a whole.

Feb 18, 2021 11:17 AM by Taffy_x3

Congrats. Now I hope we can maybeee get a better modern design for the website, and a fix on the MAL app, please and thanks.

Feb 18, 2021 10:50 AM by Boazanian

New manga in Manga Store, the !!! I'll gladly buy some good stuff !

Feb 18, 2021 10:01 AM by EdgyEcchiSenpai

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