Who are overseas manga fans? I'm sharing the results of a user survey for "MANGA Plus."

Hello. I am Mommy from the Shonen Jump+ Editorial Department.

At the Shonen Jump+ Editorial Department, we have been operating MANGA Plus by SHUEISHA (hereinafter referred to as MANGA Plus), which is a manga magazine app and web service that acts like an overseas version of Shonen Jump+ since 2019. (*I wrote about the goals behind this in a previous note.)

Currently, the MAU (Monthly Active Users) has exceeded 6 million, and for works serialized in Shonen Jump+, there is a succession of titles where the overseas circulation exceeds the initial print run in Japan (among other various factors), making it a service that has gathered many overseas readers and achieved results.

This year, we conducted a user survey on MANGA Plus.
Surprisingly, nearly 100,000 overseas manga readers responded.
Who exactly are these overseas manga readers? I think this is quite valuable data, so in this note, I would like to share a portion of the results.

The first survey result I will introduce is this.

1) Have you ever purchased physical manga volumes?

For French and Thai users, surprisingly, about 80% answered that they have purchased 10 or more volumes. You can really feel the passion of overseas manga fans.

2) Have you ever paid for digital manga?

In many language regions, this remained at 10-20%. Excluding Thai users, it is clear that there are still fewer overseas readers who buy manga as e-books compared to Japan.

3) Have you ever read manga on pirate sites?

The changes here were interesting, so I will introduce them by comparing them with the results of the same survey conducted two years ago.

As of 2020, nearly 90% of users answered that they "often" or "sometimes" read manga on pirate sites, but looking at this year's results, that number has been cut almost in half.
There were even some pirate sites that stopped updating because of MANGA Plus.
Due to the expansion of MANGA Plus, which updates as many serialized works as possible simultaneously with Japan, and the efforts of those working on anti-piracy measures, I feel that readers are beginning to shift from pirate sites to legitimate platforms, and such results are beginning to appear.

4) For those who answered "often" or "sometimes" in question 3, please tell us the reason.

What is the main reason overseas manga fans read manga on pirate sites?
The most common answer was "because there are manga that can only be read on pirate sites".
Depending on the language, there are still many serialized works that cannot be updated overseas simultaneously with Japan. It was a result that reaffirmed the need to improve the situation where there are works that can only be read on pirate sites, even if only a little.

5) Among the lineup, are there any works for which you think the translation quality is insufficient?

The dialogue in manga is carefully considered.
Having Japanese dialogue appropriately translated into each language is extremely important for maintaining the fun and appeal of the work.
How much stress do overseas readers feel regarding translation quality? The result was that about 80% are satisfied. For example, even if we just say Spanish, there are characteristics depending on the country where it is spoken, such as Spain and various Latin American countries, so I feel that readers might experience stress depending on whether it is a type of translation they are accustomed to. We will continue to make improvements to raise the quality here as well.

6) Please tell us where you often get information about manga.

For manga readers in English-speaking regions, it was Twitter and Reddit. Facebook is popular in Spanish-speaking regions and Thailand, so there are differences depending on the region. The fact that Twitter is used often in every region is likely because many Japanese manga artists post information on Twitter, and many overseas readers follow those accounts.

7) Please tell us what triggers you to try reading a new manga.

In addition to the art style and genre, the fact that many people answered that they started because they watched the anime and liked it felt like a characteristic of overseas fans. I feel that the number of overseas anime fans is on an upward trend due to the spread of video streaming services. I think the number of cases where those fans become interested in the original manga is increasing.

8) Please tell us your age.

In every language region, people in their 20s are the most common group, but it was notable that there are clearly fewer teenagers in Thailand. I suspect that the younger generation in East and Southeast Asia is increasingly reading a lot of WEBTOONs but not much manga.

9) What countries and regions are readers from?

Although this is separate from the current user survey, I would like to introduce the top 50 countries and regions by MAU data from September 2022 to show where MANGA Plus is being read.
It is interesting that many readers are reading on MANGA Plus from countries and regions that have not previously been ranked high in the overseas manga market, such as the Philippines at 6th, Malaysia at 8th, India at 11th, and South American countries like Chile at 13th. We can expect further growth in these markets as well.

10) Overseas viewership ranking on MANGA Plus

Finally, although this is also different from the user survey we conducted this time, I would like to introduce the top 10 most-viewed titles (August 2022) to show what kind of works overseas readers prefer.
The most-read latest chapter was "ONE PIECE".
By the way, all of the top titles are read by over 1 million people.
*The number of translated languages varies by title.

• ONE PIECE

• Dragon Ball Super

• Chainsaw Man

• My Hero Academia

• BORUTO: NARUTO NEXT GENERATIONS

• Black Clover

• Jujutsu Kaisen

• SPY×FAMILY

• Kaiju No. 8

• SAKAMOTO DAYS

In closing

Not only the anime business, but the overseas manga market has also been growing at an incredible pace over the last few years.
For some titles, it is no longer rare for authors at Shonen Jump+ to earn more in royalties from overseas publishing and distribution.
The Shonen Jump+ editorial department intends to put even more effort into overseas expansion in the future.
If you have knowledge of the overseas situation or ideas that could help us with our challenge, please feel free to contact Jump Digital Lab!