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Shueisha, Kodansha Collaborate on J-Comi Manga Site (Updated)
posted on by Egan Loo
Manga creator Ken Akamatsu (Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Love Hina) announced on Monday that the Japanese publishers Shueisha and Kodansha are collaborating with his manga distribution site J-Comi. In particular, the site will launch its second beta test before the end of the year with the following titles, distributed for free with advertising support:
- an unnamed 2007 Weekly Shonen Jump series from Shueisha
- an one-shot shōjo manga story by Mayu Shinjo (about 50 pages long)
- the seinen manga Kōtsū Jiko Kanteinin Tamaki Rinichirō by Takashi Kisaki, Kengo Kaji from Shueisha
J-Comi launched a beta test with free, advertising-supported downloads of the Love Hina manga on November 26. 45,000 downloads were made on the first day, and over 1.7 million download have been made as of Monday. The site staff say that the advertising click-through rate is around 10%. Akamatsu had already said in November that he plans to formally launch the site's service on January 10, 2011.
Akamatsu said at the Monday press conference that "manga is an exportable resource. I think the ad-supported distribution of manga is the only way to counter illegal distribution."
Source: ITmedia News, MyCom Journal
Update More background information added. The publisher Kodansha was corrected from the original article.
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