FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Additional Companies Have Undertaken Third-party Allotment of MyAnimeList
Tokyo, JPN – July 26, 2021 – MyAnimeList Co., Ltd. (MyAnimeList) announced today that Bushiroad Inc., Dentsu Group Inc., and a few companies cooperating with MyAnimeList's business and development have decided to collectively underwrite 448 million yen through a third-party allotment. This capital increase is part of the 1.2 billion yen third-party allotment announced earlier this year. Along with the funds which were collectively underwrote in February and May, today's announcement raises this total to 1.36 billion yen. (Note: Company names are listed in alphabetical order.)
Background of Financing
MyAnimeList endeavors to be a comprehensive platform for overseas fans to connect with and discover new Japanese anime, manga, and related media. In the two years since its acquisition, Media Do has launched official apps for iOS and Android; hosted numerous industry and community events; and prioritized improvements to the website's aging infrastructure to increase security and stability under growing access numbers. As of February 2021, MyAnimeList supports 18 million monthly active users—an 80% increase from March 2019.
With recent breakthroughs in digital services to provide translated anime and manga in near real-time, straight from Japan, these unique media styles are gaining attention worldwide. To keep pace with a dynamic industry and the demands of growing international interest, MyAnimeList has raised funds in its endeavor to strengthen the connection between overseas fans and the industry in Japan.
About the Future
MyAnimeList will actively invest the funds obtained from this financing to accelerate expansion of its platform, while striving to:
- improve accessibility for new and returning fans;
- promote richness of information exchange and user interaction;
- increase robustness of the service under increasing traffic loads; and
- advance interconnection between overseas fans and content holders/businesses.
Immediate development plans towards these goals include:
- Infrastructure changes to increase speed and support advanced UI/UX features
- Multi-language support for the anime/manga databases and user lists
- iOS/Android app advancements: e.g. dark mode, manga lists, social functions, etc.
- Upgrading user communication tools to increase information sharing
About MyAnimeList
MyAnimeList is an engaged community of overseas anime and manga fans who are passionate about organizing and scoring titles on their list, discussing their opinions, and discovering new series. The content databases contain more than 250,000 user-added and -maintained entries, with over 375,000 associated reviews and recommendations. It is the wealth of input by its wide and varied community that makes MyAnimeList a trusted source of critical reception and encyclopedic information by more than 18 million monthly active users in 230 countries. Since its creation in 2005, MyAnimeList has promoted knowledge creation and curation by the anime/manga fan for the anime/manga fan—and it is committed to continuing this support.
For more information, please visit https://myanimelist.net/