Crunchyroll is now one of the largest anime streaming services in the world. According to an industry representative, the platform owes its rapid rise primarily to its controversial early days. We summarize.
Unconventional climb
Jerome Mazandarani, managing director of Manga Entertainment until 2014, explained in a recent interview with AnimEigo & Whole Grain Pictures that Crunchyroll’s great success was due in particular to the fact that the service was still operating as a piracy website at its beginning (from 2006).
In this way, they were able to gain a large user base without having to incur expenses for licenses or marketing. When Crunchyroll switched to a legal business model in 2008 thanks to a capital investment from Venrock, the reach it had previously built proved to be a significant advantage.
This approach put traditional providers under considerable pressure. While companies like Manga Entertainment continued to rely primarily on the sale of DVDs and Blu-rays, Crunchyroll made its content available for free and shortly after its release in Japan.
With the later acquisition of important licenses, such as “Naruto,” this competition became even more intense and further accelerated the change in the industry.
Manga Entertainment transferred its UK and Ireland operations to Funimation in 2019, which was later integrated into Crunchyroll. Today the company operates under the name Crunchyroll UK and Ireland.
More on the topic:
Via AnimEigo & Whole Grain Pictures
©Crunchyroll