October 22, 2006
Mobile Manga in Japan. Success explained
Insight from Newsweek on the sucess of mobile manga publishing in Japan. Really interesting, most manga services are consulted after 11 p.m and not while commuting - and most readers are women.
"Consumer demand for manga (the Japanese word for print comics) has surged in recent months, thanks to high-speed 3G phones, the proliferation of fixed-rate plans, and high-quality LCD displays.
The growth in manga shows how hard is it to predict what effect new technologies will have on old markets. Manga publishers initially thought that a phone service would appeal to commuters, but customers have turned to their mobiles to read comics more at home, especially after 11 p.m., than on the move.
... For Japan's publishing industry, which has endured a decade of declining sales, the boom is "a savior"... The market for digital publishing grew nearly fourfold compared with the year before, to $38.5 million in March 2006.
Comic books account for $19.6 million, compared with $9.4 million for comics on PCs.
Publishers are busy converting the hundreds of titles in their archives to digital format. But digital television may soon compete with comics for viewers' eyeballs.
The other surprise is that women account for the lion's share of mobile manga consumers.
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