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Interview: Crunchyroll's Vu Nguyen

krelyan wrote:

I was just making a comment on what seems to me to be a contradiction that Mr. Nguyen makes. There certainly seems to be a potential for profit to be made or there wouldn’t be any “revenue sharing” agreements or investment money. I’m just curious what changed with the VC infusion that all of the sudden netting a profit is now a realization when Nguyen specifically notes that there was no such profit prior to the 4 million? How do you remove a source of revenue (the donation system) yet add costs (payroll and other costs associated with becoming “legit”) and now all the sudden you’re able to turn a profit? Something just doesn’t add up to me.

I don't think Mr. Nguyen ever denied the potential of net profiting. From this interview he claimed, "we weren't trying to profit but cover costs." So based on his words, it sounds like they could profit more, but they weren't trying to.

Traffic count can be used to draw in more advertisers, and advertisers would be willing to pay more. Investments can be used to expand the site and raise the quality of the service. Create partnerships with other companies... etc.

So we had to either shut it down or solicit donations.

True sales may not be increasing, but I meant that companies must look for alternatives to adapt with the new shifts and changes in technology such as allowing the purchasing of anime with subscriptions or something this could be done on crunchyroll for example where people could pay a monthly subscription for viewing copyrighted videos online and give some of the money to the distrubutors and artists while allowing some benefits for non-members like allowing them to watch unlicensed videos.

Anyways music, anime, and videos of any kind all face the same problems of distrubution so as to your point about exposure not increasing sales well a counterpoint this relates more to music inparticular but invloves the interrelation between common problems facing these industries meaning that it could easily be proven to be true in video and anime industries as well.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071102.WBcyberia20071102184331/WBStory/WBcyberia

anyways was wondering if All Dvd sales have plummeted as you have mentioned then is it not possible that the items were purchased in another way.

FreedomNo1 wrote:

True sales may not be increasing, but I meant that companies must look for alternatives to adapt with the new shifts and changes in technology such as allowing the purchasing of anime with subscriptions or something this could be done on crunchyroll for example where people could pay a monthly subscription for viewing copyrighted videos online and give some of the money to the distrubutors and artists while allowing some benefits for non-members like allowing them to watch unlicensed videos. Anyways music, anime, and videos of any kind all face the same problems of distrubution so as to your point about exposure not increasing sales well a counterpoint this relates more to music inparticular but invloves the interrelation between common problems facing these industries meaning that it could easily be proven to be true in video and anime industries as well. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071102.WBcyberia20071102184331/WBStory/WBcyberia anyways was wondering if All Dvd sales have plummeted as you have mentioned then is it not possible that the items were purchased in another way.

You appear to be contradicting yourself by stating that sales are down but are still suggesting that exposure leads to sales. Music and video are two inherently different beasts. Video, by nature, is a more disposable format. In general, it just doesn't have the replayability that music has, so illegal "exposure" is most assuredly degenerating the companies ability to market their products. It's virtually impossible to determine the exact relation that "previewing" has on sales. But there is enough evidence available that strongly suggests it is having a negative, not positive impact. No, fansubs and their ilk aren't the only reason why sales are down, but to state that they're not a huge piece of the pie that is drawing away sales is just as asinine. Exposure doesn't mean anything if you can't make money from it.

I don't quite get how they can quit their jobs to work on the site without drawing a check from the website.

Or, they happen to be four college dropouts who either still live with their parents or have student loan money. Heck, they had jobs until a few months ago is it that hard to believe they were able to live on their savings?

Based off his statements, wouldn't they have thrown their savings at keeping the site afloat in the months where the donations trickled in since they were so desperate to keep their site running that they had to beg for donations, after all.

[W]ith ToonamiJetstream and AdultSwim both showing anime from VIZ, Bandai, ADV and others[,] also ADV's adsponsored TheAnimeNetwork.com. [...] There are a LOT of viable choices for fans, from websites like those and Bost, to lowpriced DVD boxsets[sited examples in original quote], to television airings. [Fans] have NO legitimate reason to be supporting sites like CrunchyRoll--- you're just getting ripped off kids. Crunchy Roll are ripping off both the industry AND anime fandom, and are NOT worth your time.

Why is this company so secretive? We know who the founders of Youtube, Google and Yahoo are. Is it because the founders know they are running an illegal site?

However, information seems to have finally turned up... according to this site, the executive officers are Kun Gao, Vu Nguyen, Brandon Ooi, James Lin, and Sanha Han. Most seem to be graduates of Berkeley who worked at Hotornot.com.

Anyone familiar with "animePLUS!"? While CrunchyRoll has their share ethical issues, which I'm just hearing wind of, I can recall animePLUS! being one of the first profit driven ideas that takes advantage of fansubs. Where's the heat on these guys? They deserve it much more than CrunchyRoll. Get an interview with these guys and go to town.

Here's the site for reference: http://www.anime-plus.com/index.php

And there's no way GONZO's that stupid that they don't know what CR is all about. They probably just don't care, they need to get their shows out there so they can feed their kids and pay the bills.

I have no issues with the interview, but...

can someone take down that "shinji revealed" post in this thread?

There's a sticky in this forum that asks for no personal attacks, and I would assume since shinji didn't volunteer his picture to the guy who posted t hat pic. There isn't even a guarantee that's shinji.