The Sony-owned anime streamer is paying 917 million yen for a new-share issue that makes it the 5th-largest shareholder in the Tokyo-listed company behind its year-old manga app; proceeds to fund distribution platforms and localization for readers outside Japan.
Crunchyroll has taken a 7.03% stake in Link-U Group, the Tokyo-listed technology company that built and runs the Crunchyroll Manga app, as part of a business partnership the two companies announced Monday. Crunchyroll’s Japanese subsidiary is buying a new issue of about 1.07 million Link-U shares at 856 yen apiece, paying 917 million yen (about $5.9 million) and becoming the company’s fifth-largest shareholder, as first reported by Anime News Network and Animation Business Journal.
Link-U plans to put the money toward what it calls its medium-term management plan 2030, which centers on getting manga to readers outside Japan by building distribution platforms and handling localization. Link-U reported sales of 4.8 billion yen for its fiscal year to July, and losses of 382 million yen at the operating line and 520 million yen net, which it attributes to upfront investment in the business.
Crunchyroll Manga launched last October on iOS and Android in the U.S. and Canada as an ad-free add-on that sits apart from the main Crunchyroll streaming app, included at no extra charge for subscribers on the Ultimate Fan tier. Crunchyroll described the service as “powered by Link-U Group” from the start.
“Anime and manga have always been two sides of the same coin,” CCO Asa Suehira said at the launch, “and Crunchyroll is uniquely positioned to bring them together for fans everywhere.”
The library draws on publishers including Shueisha, Square Enix, VIZ Media, Yen Press, AlphaPolis, COMPASS, J-Novel Club, ThirdlineNEXT and MobileBook.JP, and it added a batch of titles with anime adaptations on Crunchyroll this past January.
Founded in 2013, Link-U specializes in running content platforms, with a particular track record in overseas manga services; it also built Shueisha’s MANGA Plus and Square Enix’s Manga UP!, and it operates the digital manga site Comikey, the manga store Compass, webtoon studio Studio Moon6 and VTuber production company Romanz.
Crunchyroll, which Sony Pictures Entertainment and Aniplex own as a joint venture, now counts more than 21 million paid subscribers and has been expanding beyond streaming into film distribution and character licensing; manga is the newest of those businesses.
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
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