I think the reason they couldn't find enough users is that their offering just wasn't convenient/good enough compared to piracy. Not only was pirated content mo

I think the reason they couldn't find enough users is that their offering just wasn't convenient/good enough compared to piracy. Not only was pirated content more accessible, it also often had better subtitling. Official subtitles seem to have way more localization than fansubs. This might be great to capture a broader audience, but it also means that the fans that are already there don't want to use your subs. Sometimes they'd just rather not watch a show than put up with your subs. Stuff like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjUtoQaRfE0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjUtoQaRfE0 What they probably should've done is what Qidian ended up doing with webnovel.com. They should've approached the fansubbers and the release groups and offered them a job. That way they would've retained the expertise and fanbase. It would've likely caused a lot of issues like Qidian did, but they would've likely had far more success. Alternatively, putting anime on places like Steam could've also been a good choice.