Kadokawa: We Allied With Google or 'Black Ships' [Part 3]

Mar 13, 2008 15:30 Tomohisa Takei and Takeyoshi Yamada, Nikkei Electronics

Q: Why did you take those businesses into the Kadokawa Group? They are supposed to be Google's businesses, aren't they?

Fukuda: Being a content provider, it is our business to protect and please rights holders. If we let Google do that, we will lose our reason to exist. That's much scarier.

We have the same view about user uploads. Entertainment can't exist without fans. They go to the trouble to advertise our content with good intentions. If we ignore or accuse such fans of violating copyrights, there will be no fans.

There are some bad people. So we look through all the files that are uploaded. Only after that, we determine whether they are real fans or hooligans.

Greater efficiency is necessary, but I'm not interested at all in systems that do everything automatically throughout the process. I want to pay as much attention as possible to every file. Many of the people who complain about YouTube don't look at the content closely, I think. I'd like to tell them to study the matter before complaining.

We also pay respect to users and fans, just like we do to rights holders. It's like when someone applies for a job. We don't want to reject their application just based on their resume without interviewing him or her. It's just like when you depend too much on automatic junk mail filtering systems, for example, when you sometimes fail to see important email.

To continue a process that no one wants to do 24 hours a day every day, we established Kadokawa Digix. Behind the development of civilization and culture, there are always mechanisms concerning customer support and maintenance. Society won't work until the behind the scenes work is done. I believe that's the final solution.

Over the last ten and some years, I've been considering what would be the problems and what backstage works would be required when operating content business using networks and digital technologies. Forming a company and building up my expertise, I've been preparing myself for this day. I've also kept on telling our staff members that, "You'll see that whoever succeeds in management 24 hour a day, 365 days a year, will eventually conquer the world."

Therefore, when YouTube emerged, I immediately recognized what was missing. At the point when Google acquired YouTube and an advertisement model was likely to be employed for it, I simulated the model in my head. Since then, I've always had specific ideas of necessary work in my mind.

For example, a mechanism to return profits to rights holders is definitely necessary. To generate profits, we must serve or sell as many ads as possible for our lives. If it were not for a mechanism to return money, YouTube would be an existence that just infringes copyrights, won't it?

Q: Yet your businesses still seem quite risky. Do you consider preceding rival companies will generate profits as a result?

Fukuda: I'm hoping our efforts will spread fast to other content providers in Japan. If other movie companies, not only Kadokawa Group's movie department, come and say, "Let's vitalize Japanese movies more. Let us join you for that purpose," Kadokawa Digix will be happy to cooperate.

Considering fencing customers in, it may be better not to help other companies at all. If only Kadokawa's content is used on YouTube, it will gain popularity and return profits to right holders and creators might insist on releasing content through Kadokawa. However, we can't make progress by pursuing such a narrow-minded plan.

I made this point clear to our chairman before starting our partnership with Google. I told him that, "If this is a mission to 'fence customers in by Kadokawa Group,' I can't do it." Then he replied, "Don't consider the partnership to be a mean-spirited undertaking."

A company like Kadokawa is best suited to such a scheme and concept, considering our expertise. Therefore, I want to conduct field tests here and quickly establish a system that everyone can feel safe to use. We are not one of the IT ventures that must be listed and generate profits some day. It's not that I'm trying to exaggerate things, but we are doing this so all of Japan can benefit.

• Kadokawa: We Allied With Google or 'Black Ships' [Part 1]
• Kadokawa: We Allied With Google or 'Black Ships' [Part 2]
• Kadokawa: We Allied With Google or 'Black Ships' [Part 4]

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