

In 2009, AcFun went offline for an entire month because of an internal conflict. Apart from mainstream dramas, AcFun built its reputation on so-called kichiku videos - pop songs remixed by netizens and set to quirky, homemade music videos - and bullet screens, the user comments that fly across videos as they play.īut AcFun’s 11-year history has been turbulent, with ownership changing hands six times and several spinoffs going on to surpass the company in terms of both users and revenue - to the extent that some netizens began referring to the ACG website as a “unicorn incubator.” AcFun filled this niche, and even added subtitles in Mandarin. Short for “anime comic fun,” AcFun was founded in 2007 as a Chinese imitation of the Japanese website Niconico, which attracts hordes of 2-D culture fans interested in animation, comics, and games - jointly referred to as “ACG.” At that time, there wasn’t an outlet providing easy access to Chinese ACG lovers’ favorite Japanese, Korean, and American series. The 25-year-old said poor management, ownership changes, and a clunky interface were likely responsible for the website’s decline. “It was knocked out by the market,” Jiang Mengjie, an AcFun user for over a decade, told Sixth Tone. Though AcFun went offline or had some of its features disabled a handful of times in 2017, netizens soon realized that the company’s February post might really be a final farewell.ĪcFun’s audience has been waning for years, as its rivals proliferate and expand. The company could not be reached for comment. The post was shared nearly 70,000 times, and many netizens begged their beloved video-sharing service not to go away. 2 on microblog platform Weibo, along with a cry-face emoji. “I really want to live for another 500 years,” AcFun wrote Feb. In December, it was rumored that Alibaba intended to acquire AcFun, but a deal has yet to materialize. The once-popular video-streaming website has not paid its employees since October 2017, according to Tencent News, and the lease for its Alibaba-owned servers expired at the end of January. Animation (MAD), Music (Eastern, Vocaloid themes, and Animation songs), Game (it has many Asian themes but now is mainly MUGEN), Entertainment (reality shows, etc.), Articles (Politics, military related articles with some OTAKU), Drama, etc.AcFun, China’s first video-sharing platform to feature the now-ubiquitous “bullet screen” function, has been offline since early February. The website divides videos into different types. The others viewers can still see the words or comments. The word or sentences would disappear on that viewer's screen. There may be some unwanted comments shown on screen while watching videos, viewers can block the unwanted word or comment. The comments will overlay on the video screen, called “dàn mù 弹幕”.Įach viewer can create a "blocking list", which allow users to block some unwanted words or comments. Users can comment on the video while watching. The users can have more interaction and communication while watching videos. The users are able to comment in the comment section or directly put an overlaid comment onto the videos.

The users' comments are overlaid directly onto the videos. AC Musume and TD Musume are the representative icons of AcFun.ĪcFun have basic function that users can upload, view and share videos. The website is initially targeted towards an ACGN(Animation, Comic, Game and Novel) audience, and is currently one of the more influential video sharing website for its target audience. It is the first video sharing website which comments are overlaid on videos.

AcFun is an abbreviation of "Anime, Comic and Fun". AcFun known as AC for short, is a Chinese video sharing website.
