Nico Nico Douga
You might remember it as Niconico, danmaku comments
The archive has not found a surviving copy.
2006·Early YouTube
A Japanese video site on which viewers’ comments scroll across the picture at the moment in the video they were written about.
At a glanceThe facts
- Spread in
- 2006
- Began as
- A web page
- Made by
- Niwango, a subsidiary of Dwango
- Also known as
- Niconico, since 2012
- Origin
- Not an upload originally
- Available
- Not held by ViralWorld
What this wasThe story
Nico Nico Douga launched on 12 December 2006 with one idea nobody else had: comments are drawn over the picture, pinned to the second they were written. Watching a video means watching every previous viewer react to it in the same instant. Vocaloid culture, MAD videos and a great deal of what the West later imported as anime internet grew there rather than on YouTube.
Why it matteredWhat changed
It began by playing YouTube’s videos under its own comments, and was cut off.
TimelineIn order
- Made
The site is launched, using YouTube as the source of its videos. YouTube blocks it, and it returns two weeks later with its own servers.1
- Later
It has 23.69 million registered users.1
- Later
It is renamed Niconico.1
- Taken down
A ransomware attack takes the site offline. Service is not fully back until August.1
Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · a moment that changed what the internet did next · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast · still being watched and quoted years later
This began as a web page, not as a video.
Where it came fromWhat we know
There is no original upload to identify: this did not begin as one. There is no copy of it here either — what it was, when it appeared and what people called it is what this page can tell you.
Nothing here is claimed to be the first publication of this Moment, because the first publication was not an upload. This began as a web page, not as a video.
Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.
More from 2006You were there
ConnectedFollow it further
- It helped spread CaramelldansenGIF · 2007
The boom that made it a hit in Japan began on Nico Nico Douga at the end of 2007.
- It helped spread Hatsune MikuPhenomenon · 2007
Users posted songs made with her voice to Nico Nico Douga soon after release, and the site drove her popularity.
SourcesWhat was read
Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things