Piracy of content such as music, series or movies has fallen worldwide thanks to platforms like Netflix, HBO, Spotify, iTunes and others. But, there is a segment, which may be unexpected, where piracy is growing at full speed. We are talking about sleevewhich is experiencing a burst of piracy, with 100 new websites per month to download.
Manga are graphic novels created in Japan that are gaining more and more followers around the world. To give you an idea, in 2023, 50% of graphic novels sold in the United States were Japanese manga.
Not only is there a great boom in this country, but in Spain, Italy and France there is a great boom in this type of graphic novels. This type of graphic novel is quite characteristic due to its drawings and the particularity of how these types of novels are read.
Manga piracy booms worldwide
Currently, it is estimated that there are around 1,300 websites offering manga illegally. Not only that, more than 100 new websites offering this type of graphic novels have been recorded in a month. It is estimated that this generates a loss of around 800 million dollars per month for the industry and has even become a state problem.
In an attempt to curb this proliferation, the anti-piracy group Authorized Books of Japan (ABJ) has been created. This group has carried out various advertising campaigns in the media in the United States, Italy, France and Spain.
The campaign was launched on July 17, which is “Manga Day.” The idea is to raise awareness about piracy, attacking those who do it and thanking those who pay for comics. This campaign has been published in the New York Times (United States), La Repubblica (Italy), El País (Spain) and Le Monde (France).
Normally, campaigns against advertising focus on the negative aspects of this practice. For years in Spain we have experienced this type of campaigns that have never been successful. Nor has imposing taxes to stop it worked; on the contrary, they encouraged piracy.
ABJ has tried something different and is nothing other than to show their gratitude to those who buy manga. Specifically, the message says the following: “thank you for reading the official versions.” They hope that this message will have an effect on readers of this type of novels.
They pointed out that most sites offer a relatively small number of manga. They also pointed out that the vast majority are translated into English. They also pointed out that these more than 1,300 sites add up to billions of visits annually.
On the other hand, ABJ has highlighted that:
The amount of free reading per month on the top 10 English translation piracy sites alone amounts to US$800 million, a figure that increases every year and requires immediate action.
Finally, they point out that sites with English translations receive the most traffic. The second place goes to manga in English and the third to sites that offer manga translated into Vietnamese.