Yoshida Nihei, CEO of Beagree Inc.

Contribute to the industry by creating content that is possible only through online services!

President and CEO of Beagree Inc.　
Jinpei Yoshida

■ Profile

Born in 1971, he graduated from the School of Science and Engineering at Waseda University in 1994 and joined Nissho Iwai Corporation (now Sojitz). In 2007, he joined BBMF Corporation (now our company), where he held key positions before becoming Representative Director in 2013. The company was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers in March 2017 and moved to the First Section of the following March. Since then, in addition to the growth of Manga Kingdom, he has also executed M&A with Novelba Inc., an e-novel service, and Bunkasha Group, a general publishing company, transforming the company into a content production company.

 Beagree Inc. operates Manga Kingdom, the No. 1 value comic distribution service. In October 2020, the company acquired shares in the Bunkasha Group, a general publishing company, and is a content production company aiming for further growth and the creation of new value by leveraging the Bunkasha Group's discerning eye to strengthen its content proposals and original productions.
We spoke to President Yoshida about his thoughts as he continues to venture into the value that the times demand in the ever-advancing IT business.

When I was in high school, I took the university entrance exam because I wanted to move to Tokyo from Fukushima. That's why I discovered so many things I didn't know when I moved to Tokyo, and I was very curious. At the time, airfares were starting to get cheaper, so I worked part-time jobs more than studying, and used the money I saved to travel abroad. However, I didn't have much money, so my destinations were mainly Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. I wanted to go somewhere different. At the time, Japanese manufacturing was making a name for itself around the world, and it was inspiring to be able to experience the power of Japanese companies, for example, refrigerators being made in Japan even in the mountains of Thailand.

■Taking the bat with content

　My family ran a liquor store, so I had a strong sense of business, and I knew that if I was going to get a job and devote a huge amount of my life's resources to business, I wanted to master it, and if I was going to master it, I wanted to work for a trading company. With my experience traveling abroad, I joined Nissho Iwai (now Sojitz Corporation). At the trading company, I actually wanted to take on a big project like building an oil refinery in the desert, but perhaps because I had been in an artificial intelligence lab at university, I was assigned to the Information Industry Headquarters, and my first job was selling mobile phones. At the time, the number of subscribers nationwide was around 200 million, and I could feel firsthand how the market was expanding year by year.
　After that, I gained a wide range of IT-related experience at a trading company, but I had never worked in content. IT is ultimately an infrastructure and a means, and the important theme is what to do with it, but trading companies are good at making money through large-scale investments, so they were not good at content such as entertainment. I had in mind the idea that "ultimately, content drives the growth of IT," and so I jumped into this company by chance. Of course, I liked manga, but rather than wanting to work in manga, I wanted to work in content, and manga was the opportunity that presented itself to me.

■Manga Kingdom's "value for money" and "media nature" are different from competing services.'

　The first difference between "Manga Kingdom" and competing services is the sense of value. We deal with content directly with creators without using intermediaries, and we place advertisements ourselves without going through agencies. This makes us highly profitable, allowing us to pass on the savings to users and creators.
　In addition, our points program allows you to earn points both when you purchase and when you use them, so you can enjoy many titles at a great value. The more you use Manga Kingdom, the more you can read.
　Another thing is that we are no longer just an online bookstore, but have begun to take on the role of a "medium" like a magazine. Originally, manga was drawn on paper and published as a magazine, and the interesting ones were published as books, but the size of the magazine market has been shrinking year by year. This means that there are fewer opportunities to create new manga. Instead, our company, which deals directly with creators and has the media power to do so, is able to take on that role.
　Before e-books became widespread, it was common for people to browse books in bookstores and end up buying any that caught their eye. However, many bookstores now wrap books to prevent browsing. That's why we offer a certain amount of manga for free reading. Manga is created to make people want to read more. Therefore, widening the entry point leads to market expansion. What we must not forget here is maintaining a balance between the speed of consumption and the speed of production. If making something free increases the speed of consumption too much, or if there is too much focus on profit, the quality may decline and cause the content itself to decline. Striking a balance that ensures that creators receive a fair profit is crucial for industry growth.

■The mission of the IT market, which can be "contrarian"

When a manga hits the market, distribution costs such as shipping are high if it's paper. If the market size is large, profits will be generated, but as the market shrinks, it becomes difficult to produce products other than those that are sure to be a hit. However, new trends are born when content goes against mainstream trends, or "contrarianism." Someone creates something different from the trend, and consumers who are tired of trends flock to it, and those who find a way to win with it get on board. It's no exaggeration to say that this metabolism shapes culture. Of course, that's not everything, but contrarianism is important when it comes to content. In a publishing market where only products that are expected to sell well can be produced, it's difficult to try this contrarian approach.
　This is possible in the world of online services, where there are no distribution costs. This is not limited to manga; needs are becoming increasingly specialized in every industry these days. Creating niche products that only 5 out of 100 people will see is possible thanks to the low distribution costs of the internet, and I believe it is the mission of the internet.
　We aim to establish a digital version of the publishing market trend from comic magazines to books. That's what we're aiming for. The best thing would be to produce a hit work that everyone knows from our media. If a single manga work like "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba" can create such a movement, the power of manga has not diminished at all. We continue to have the ambition to make our content known to everyone.

■I want to work with people who don't give up easily

　As a company, we hire students who have the ability to think for themselves and act tenaciously, the ability to think outside the box, and the ability to get others to understand and move things forward.
　And speaking personally, I want to work with people who don't give up easily. To stand out, it's important not to be able to follow a set pattern, but to be able to seek out answers that aren't given to others, and the only way to do that is through trial and error. That's why I want to work with people who are persistent.

■Message to university students

　Work hard on the things that are in front of you. I think it's important to set a goal and work backwards, but especially these days, that backwards scenario isn't always correct. So, just work hard on the things that are in front of you. Don't be afraid to go against the flow, and don't be picky about things before you try them.

Student Newspaper WEB December 15, 2020 Interview by Shunsuke Miyata, 1st year student at Keio University