Nico Nico Douga

In Japan, there is an interesting service called "Nico Nico Douga (Smile Video)".
"Nico Nico" means "smile", and "Douga" means "video".

Basically, it is a video sharing site like YouTube etc, but what makes
Nico Nico Douga special is that the users can write comments "on" the video.

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1) Overview: what is Nico Nico Douga?
================================

Nico Nico Douga is a video sharing site that enables the users to write comments "on" the video.

In general, video sharing sites (like YouTube) enables the users to
write comments beneath the videos in the comments section, but not "on" the video.

So what is good about putting comments on the videos?
The answer is- that the comments itself becomes communication / contents / art   :)

Personally speaking, if I were to view the same video content,
I'd rather see it on Nico Nico Douga than any other video sharing sites.

Nico Nico Douga requires you to register your account first
before you can upload videos, comment, or even watch the videos.

This article gives you English instructions on how to get Nico Nico account :)
-Let me know if you have any problem getting an account I think I can help out.

One example of Nico Nico videos can be seen here:




A)  Comments as communication method
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

For example, people watch videos of the seminars and comment and / or ask questions
and answer those questions etc "on" the video.

This clip is from a speech of Mr. Sasaki who works for Crypton
and is in charge of a Desktop Music Software called "Hatsune-Miku"
talking at the Japan Developers Conference.
Their CEO Ito-san loves the clips that the users created with Hatsune-Miku,
and Sasaki-san mentions how Ito-san is watching the Miku clips of Nico Nico Douga at his office :)

It is a very lovable situation when you imagine- and people are smiling
"wwww" means "laughter" in Nico Nico world.




B) "Danmaku comments"
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When you listen to music or go to Karaoke, people tends to sing along the "main phrase".
Just like that, people "comments" of the main phrase of songs in Nico Nico Douga.

"danmaku" means "curtain fire" in Japanese.
In the following picture, you can see how comments look like curtain fire or barrage.



 


C) Comments as "art"
------------------------------------

Anyone can easily comment on Nico Nico Douga, it is very easy.
And when you think about "comments", you usually imagine a short and simple one line text.
However, Nico Nico users' creativity far exceeded that presumption.
They create great art works using the "comment function" of Nico Nico Douga
using different size, colors, speed, etc with various techniques and calculations.











This is a great video to see those "comment arts"

comment arts from "Kumikyoku Nico Nico Douga"
(more on this song "Kumikyoku" later)

Also, when this Kumikyoku was viewed 2million times or 3 million times,
those "shokunin"s starts to actively demonstrate their techniques as celebration.

2 million views festival
3 million views festival week 1
3 million views festival week 2
3 million views festival week 3

I think the reason why Nico Nico users were able to create such artistic comments
is because of ASCII art culture that here in Japan way before there was Nico Nico Douga.
 
へのへのもへじ existed from the old old days,

 
and other AA(ASCII ARTS) had existed in Japan for a long time.

　　 　∧＿∧　　／￣￣￣￣￣
　　（　´∀｀）＜　   hello!
　　（　　　　） 　＼＿＿＿＿＿
　　　｜ ｜　|
　　（_＿）＿）



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2) The community / Nico Nico and its stats
======================================================

I think the community is the most important aspect of Nico Nico Douga.

They are extraordinarily talented in finding interesting / funny stuff
and / or creating interesting / funny stuff.

Systemwise, being able to comment "on" the video" is not unique any more
- there are various competitors that entered the market.

However, what makes Nico Nico so special is that the community and their contents
that create the addictive-ness of Nico Nico Douga.

Number of users of Nico Nico and its competitors (as of October, 2007),
data source Net Ratings
 
Nico Nico Douga        3,860,000
Jimaku.in                     119,000
Nif Nif Douga                 11,000





YouTube has 14,551,000 users which far exceeds Nico Nico Douga,
but as for the amount of time spent in the site, Nico Nico is double that of YouTube.

Nico Nico Douga      2 hours 50 minutes 10 seconds
YouTube                 1 hour     6 minutes 53 seconds

"Nico Chu" has become a popular world,
and it means "Nico Nico addict"
People becomes addicted to Nico Nico so much.



This chart is also from Netratings (press release of 2007/9/21)

It compares number of visits and hours of usage per user
of YouTube and Nico Nico Douga- you can see how drastic Nico Nico Douga is attracting usage.





<other stats>

5,000,000 registered users (as of 2008/1/19 )
174,000 paid users(Nico Nico Premium) (as of 2008/1/21)
1,000,000 mobile users (as of 2008/2/10)
800,000,000th comment posted (as of 2008/1/25)

- Data source: Dwango

60 million PV / day, 2,000,000,000 PV /  month
(Operated by only 16 Web servers and 10 DB servers!!)

-Data source: Nikkei IT Pro

6,000 videos per day is being uploaded

-Data source: @Pia interview

Nico Nico's peak traffic is 60Gbps, and is worth 1/12 of the total traffic of Japan.
Active users are 1 million people per day.

-Data source: CNet Japan

Business model of Nico Nico Douga is not merely Ad model.
Revenue per month is over 100,000,000 yen (100,000 USD) ,
most of which comes from paid customers (Nico Nico Premium users who pays 525 yen per month).

- Data source: Nikkei BP Online

<Revenue per month, as of November 2007>



- Data source CNet Japan

Viacom was suing YouTube(Google) in US, Viacom Japan is having a contract with Nico Nico Douga.
Viacom Japan will create "MTV brand" page within Nico Nico Douga, and have a revenue share on the ad revenue.

- Data source: CNet Japan


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3) User Generated Contents
======================================================


One feature of Nico Nico Douga is that not many people do not upload
mere packages such as TV dramas and animes,
as mere packages are mostly deleted in Nico Nico Douga.

Most of the contents are user generated contents such as MADs (fan-made videos) or DIYs (songs, dances, etc)

People create and remix videos every day,
and there is a great "Remix Culture" within the Nico Nico Community.

In Nico Nico Douga, not only the video itself, but various things are  "User generated".



A) User generated videos

Videos are created and uploaded by the users so it is user generated,
but as I mentioned previously, contents in Nico Nico are mostly MADs, Remixes and DIYs
that are created by the users, not mere packages of TV shows, animes etc.



B) User generated comments

Of course comments are generated by the users,
but the way users started to create art with comments are very very unique.



C) User generated tags

You can add tag to your own video, but you can add tag to other people's videos too,
and the "tag" section has become an  area to communicate among the viewers and the video owner.



D) User generated affiliates (Nico Nico Ichiba)

Users can add products to the affiliate section,
and there are various funny / joke products in those sections
as the Nico Nico users LOVES finding and creating funny things.

There are lots of chaotic and crazyish videos in Nico Nico Douga.
Beneath those videos, you can find affiliates such as a ringtone saying "hey, calm down..."
or a CD called "hmm, this can be okay...".



This is an amazing video using ARToolKit, and its affiliate section has
a ringtone saying "The future is in our hands!" and "The great Japan"
and "Bach: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" meaning there is a calling...



BTW, currently even if you put lots of videos, lots of comments, lots of affiliates,
none of the revenue goes to the users.
Then why do people participate? It is because it is fun. Because they like it.
 
They are doing it for the love, not for the money.


===========================
4) Examples of Nico Nico Videos
===========================


Contents you can see in Nico Nico Douga are various.

A)  "Onmyoji".
This is one of the most famous videos, and is said to be one of the first "Danmaku" videos.

It was broadcasted on a Japanese TV show on 2007/3/17.
Personally, what interested me the most was that the guest in the TV show
was shown various services and clips and in the end when she was asked which one was the most interesting she chose this.

Until then, I thought these videos were not for "ordinary" people like her, but it was... :)

B) DIYs

Played "Jonetsu Tairiku" alone
(Believe it or not, this person is still a highschool student)

Drawn a picture series
"an ear speaker" "Sleeping Pharmacist"

Created the Opening video of an anime "Higurashi" using Excel

"Hello Windows", a song made by sampling Windows system sounds
　A further "remix of Hello Windows"

C) Cats

Cats are LOVED by Nico Nico community
"Neco Nabe""Lethal Weapon Kitty"

D) VOCALOID

Hatsune-Miku is the most famous of the VOCALOID series.
Please refer to my previous article I have posted before.

Some more videos of Miku:

3DCG: dancing Miku
Mikus sang "Kimi wo nosete"

E) IDOLM@STER

IDOLM@STER is a name of a game that enables you to
become a producer and produce an idol talent.

BTW, this Master Artists series has the total of 6,000,000,000 yen
including all the games and related products, which is like... gosh!!!

- Data source: ASCII

Tokachi
Go My Way


F) Kumikyoku Nico Nico Douga (Suite Nico Nico Douga)

There were lots of hit songs within Nico Nico Douga
(regardless of whether it is a hit outside Nico Nico...)

Makka na Chikai  (Version J)
Gum- Rockman- Okusenman! (Version Gum)
Priests' Aquarion (Full Version)

From the collection of those songs,
Kumikyoku Nico Nico Douga was created.


Then, various remixes were created.

piano version
origninal
Version J　（1,272,933 views!)
Grand Finale

G) Real world impact

A company called Rantis decided to release a CD of those Nico Nico musicians

Rantis Kumikyoku feat.Nico Nico Artists [Maxi]

Also, Nico Nico musicians decided to do live performances.


H) DANJO

An artist called "Taro" sang a song called "Danjo (man and woman)"
and it became very popular in Nico Nico world, with various videos created.

Then, a user created an anime video of VOCALOID characters dancing to this song:
Bakaito and Hetaren dancing with Danjo
Bakaito and Hetaren increased version

and this anime video became traced by hundreds of people with different characters.
Danjo with Higurashi
Danjo with Moyashimon

People also started dancing to this song
And someone remixed this dance video
and this dance was remixed with other videos....


I) UMAUMA

A Swedish artist called "Caramell" released a song called "Caramelldansen" back in 2001.
The lyric sounds like this in Japanese : "No I don't need Barsamico vinegar" "ooh, ooh, yum yum"

Then, someone found this flash anime created in August, 2006
and started copying the video with various characters.

Caramelldansen
Caramelldansen IDOLM@STER
Caramelldansen Donad
Caramelldansen CLANNAD
Caramelldansen Kagamine Rin/Ren
Caramelldansen Kaito
Caramelldansen SOS
Caramelldansen Pikachu

There are various "digest" versions

tag search result for "caramelldansen" amounts to 1,024 clips!


People also uploads videos of various seminars, tutorials
(how to use various softwares), and learn/teach through those videos.


======================
5)  Rights and Rules
======================

Nico Nico Douga has its own delete rules, and if the video is breaking those rules,
they will be deleted right away.

1) Nico Nico hires a "deleter" person, and delete illegal contents
  especially pornographic contents.

2) Content holders are able to get "violation combat program"
  which enables them to delete videos if they find any violation of their rights.

3) Users can submit complaint directly from any video.

Also, the Nico Nico users has developed their "common sense" within the community
and most of them believes that the content creator should receive respect.

If the content owner is selling those content,
then they know it is a BAD thing if any of the community member uploads those contents fully.
(Remixes and excerpts are generally thought of as OK, as it will increase the promotional effect)