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niconico

Niconico

Niconico (ニコニコ),1) formerly Niconico Douga (ニコニコ動画),2) is a popular Japanese website known for its video sharing service, but they also house several other services. It was launched on December 12, 2006 by Niwango3) under Dwango, now a Kadokawa subsidiary.

They originally used YouTube videos as a source, but a DDoS attack had forced YouTube to block Niconico Douga around February 23, 2007, resulting in the website to require accounts and start hosting videos locally. Also, please be aware of the tag registration system.

Notice!
After October 30, 2024, several Niconico services are region-locked or have limited functionality outside of Japan, supposedly to account for the changing social norms and international law.4)5)

Summary

While the website is a video-sharing service, this description is a bit misleading as it's a much bigger website than it looks, as it also offers streaming, illustration-sharing, encyclopedia, and so on. However, the climate can be harsh and uninviting since it has roots in 2channel, vandalism is rampant, and the culture hasn't really stood the test of time with management bearing the brunt of criticism for bias or inaction.

In the past, Niconico used to be synonymous with this internet culture renaissance,6) but the culture couldn't stay young forever and Inmu would mark a rejection of tradition. By the mid-2010s, conflicts and tensions7) became clear, while the website aged and hasn't been innovative in years. It still has an audience, but people have since moved to TikTok, YouTube, legal streaming services, etc.

List of Niconico services

As previously mentioned, Niconico is a large website that offers many different services and always seem to be experimenting with new services, but they've hit a rut and haven't innovated in years. You can find the extensive list of current and former services on Japanese Wikipedia. To keep this article a bit concise, I am only listing the current services that are active on Niconico at the time of this writing.

Service Possible English Translation(s) Description Launched
Niconico Douga⚠️
ニコニコ動画
www.nicovideo.jp
• Niconico Douga
• Niconico Moving Image
• Niconico Video
A video sharing service with barrage-style commentary. The main feature. 2006-12-12
Niconico Namahōsō
ニコニコ生放送
live.nicovideo.jp
• Niconama
• Niconico Live
• Niconico Namahoso
A live broadcasting/streaming service. 2007-12-19
Niconico Daihyakka
ニコニコ大百科
dic.nicovideo.jp
• Niconico Encyclopedia
• Niconico Pedia
An online encyclopedia service. Requires a premium account to edit. 2008-05-15
Niconi Commons
ニコニ・コモンズ
commons.nicovideo.jp
• Niconi Commons A video material “sharing” service. A pun on Creative Commons. 2008-08-15
Niconico Channel⚠️
ニコニコチャンネル
ch.nicovideo.jp
• Niconico Channel A multi-content, monthly subscription platform for creators. 2008-12-05
Niconi Koukoku⚠️
ニコニ広告
nicoad.nicovideo.jp
• Niconico Ad
• Niconico Advertising
A service that lets people advertise on their favorite videos. 2009-03-10
Niconico Jikkyō
ニコニコ実況
jk.nicovideo.jp
• Niconico Commentary
• Niconico Jikkyō
• Niconico Live Commentary
A live commentary service. 2009-07-24
Niconico Seiga
ニコニコ静画
seiga.nicovideo.jp
• Niconico Image
• Niconico Seiga
• Niconico Still Image
An illustration sharing service. It's similar to Pixiv, but came several years late. 2009-11-14
Niconico News
ニコニコニュース
news.nicovideo.jp
• Niconico News A general news service. 2010-10-29
Niconico Rittai
ニコニ立体
3d.nicovideo.jp
• Niconi 3D
• Niconi Solid
A 3D model “sharing” service. 2014-05-02
N Anime
Nアニメ
anime.nicovideo.jp
• N Anime
• Niconico Anime
A general anime information hub that also links to the legal streaming options. 2018-04-25
Niconico Q
ニコニコQ
q.nicovideo.jp
• Niconico Q A quiz and questionnaire service. 2018-07-05
Niconi Koken
ニコニ貢献
koken.nicovideo.jp
• Hogehoge
• Niconi Contribution
A better way for creators to show their appreciation for supporters. 2021-06-09
NicoFT
NicoFT
nicoft.io
• NicoFT An NFT marketplace for member passes. 2023-03-28

List of former categories and genres

For over a decade, videos were classified using a “large category / small category” tagging system, but this was changed to a “genre / category” tagging system on June 26, 2019.8) It also meant that the category ranking pages were deprecated and entirely overhauled. Unlike the prior system, the new system appears to be more flexible as uploaders don't have to attach a genre anymore.

Show deprecated categorizations.

Version history

Niconico will occasionally announce a version upgrade that brings a lot of changes (i.e. features, services) to the website, but I'm leaving those out because there's a lot of them.

No. Version Meaning Timespan
Start date End date
01 ニコニコ動画(仮) Provisional9) 2006-12-12 2007-01-15
02 ニコニコ動画(β) Beta 2007-01-15 2007-02-24
YouTube blocks Niconico
03 ニコニコ動画(γ) Gamma 2007-03-06 2007-06-18
04 ニコニコ動画(RC) Release Candidate 2007-06-18 2007-10-10
05 ニコニコ動画(RC2) Release Candidate 2 2007-10-10 2008-03-05
06 ニコニコ動画(SP1) Service Pack 1 2008-03-05 2008-07-05
07 ニコニコ動画(夏) Summer 2008-07-05 2008-10-01
08 ニコニコ動画(秋) Autumn 2008-10-01 2008-12-05
09 ニコニコ動画(冬) Winter 2008-12-05 2008-12-12
10 ニコニコ動画(ββ) Double Beta10) 2008-12-12 2009-10-29
11 ニコニコ動画(9) 911) 2009-10-29 2010-10-29
12 ニコニコ動画(原宿) Harajuku12) 2010-10-29 2012-04-30
13 ニコニコ動画:Zero Zero 2012-05-01 2012-10-17
14 ニコニコ動画:Q Q13) 2012-10-18 2013-10-07
15 ニコニコ動画:GINZA GINZA14) 2013-10-08 2018-06-27
16 niconico(く) Crescendo15) 2018-06-28 2020-08-09
17 ニコニコ(Re) Re 2020-08-09 2022-12-12
18 ニコニコ(eR) Er16) 2022-12-12 2024-06-08
19 ニコニコ(Re:仮) Re:Provisional 2024-06-14 2024-08-05
20 帰ってきたニコニコ Returned 2024-08-05 2024-09-17
21 ニコニコ(Re:turn) Re:turn 2024-09-17 Ongoing

gantt %%{init: {'theme':'dark'}}%% title History of Niconico dateFormat YYYY-MM-DD axisFormat %Y todayMarker off tickInterval 12month section Versions Provisional : 2006-12-12, 2007-01-15 Beta : 2007-01-15, 2007-02-24 Gamma : 2007-03-06, 2007-06-18 Release Candidate : 2007-06-18, 2007-10-10 Release Candidate 2: 2007-10-10, 2008-03-05 Service Pack 1 : 2008-03-05, 2008-07-05 Summer : 2008-07-05, 2008-10-01 Autumn : 2008-10-01, 2008-12-05 Winter : 2008-12-05, 2008-12-12 Double Beta : 2008-12-12, 2009-10-29 9 : 2009-10-29, 2010-10-29 Harajuku : 2010-10-29, 2012-04-30 Zero : 2012-05-01, 2012-10-17 Q : 2012-10-18, 2013-10-07 GINZA : 2013-10-08, 2018-06-27 Crescendo : 2018-06-28, 2020-08-09 Re : 2020-08-09, 2022-12-12 Er : 2022-12-12, 2024-06-08 Re Provisional : 2024-06-14, 2024-08-05 Returned : 2024-08-05, 2024-09-17 Re Turn : 2024-09-17, 2025-01-01

List of known userscripts

Niconico's recent rebuild completely changed everything, so some of these scripts may no longer work.

Most of this information comes from their Greasemonkey article.
Also, use Tampermonkey or Violentmonkey instead.

Notes

  • It originally started out as “Niwango Video” (ニワンゴビデオ) at “niwavideo.jp” for a short time.
  • There used to be a Spanish-language and German-language version of the website.
  • For some reason, search results are now a playlist and the option to disable “autoplay” is buried, so you have to go into “video list” (動画リスト) and disable “autoplay” (連続再生).
    • In the English interface, the names are “up next” and “play on repeat”, while the “autoplay” that appears in settings actually just stops the video from playing when the page is loaded.
1)
“Niconico” (にこにこ) is Japanese onomatopoeia for smiling or a friendly grin.
2)
I could go on a long tangent about how inconsistent Japanese onomatopoeia conversions into English are, but I'm not in the mood to write all of that here yet.
3)
“Niwango” (ニワンゴ) was a Dwango subsidiary whose name was a portmanteau of 2channel (Nichanneru) and Dwango. It was directed by Hiroyuki Nishimura and Naozumi Takenaka. Nishimura was dismissed from the company in February 2013, and the subsidiary has since merged into Dwango by October 2015.
5)
The exact terminology is “recent social conditions” (昨今の社会環境), then “international affairs” (国際情勢) and “foreign laws and regulations” (海外の法令).
6)
The internet culture in question saw a revival of Flash and video creation, which encompassed trends like Airmoto, Gachimuchi, The Idolm@ster, Touhou Project, Vocaloid, etc.
7)
For instance, you had the Touhou–KanColle proxy war, the MMD Cup had to be cancelled, and the famed “Sand Planet” video described where Vocaloid culture was at during Hatsune Miku's 10th anniversary.
9)
The kanji, “kari” (仮), can be translated as “temporary”, “provisional”, “tentative”, or “interim” in this case.
10)
“Double Beta” (ββ) is named that way because it was meant to be a return to “Beta” (β) times.
11)
“9” was allegedly the ninth version. It's not a reference to “m9” or “”.
12)
“Harajuku” is meant to commemorate the “Niconico Headquarters” building that was set up in Harajuku, though it was only used from December 2010 to January 2014. And yes, it's that building.
13)
“Q” is just a “0” with a hair. This may also be a reference to the third Rebuild of Evangelion movie.
14)
“Ginza” is meant to commemorate Dwango moving to a tower behind the Kabuki-za in Ginza.
15)
There is a Unicode character for crescendo (𝆒), but they actually use “ku” (く) here instead.
16)
“eR” is a reference to English words with the “-er” suffix which often describe the types of content creators (e.g. dancer, designer, painter, singer, streamer, writer, etc.).
niconico.txt · Last modified: 2024-12-03 12:52:34 by namelessrumia