Hiroyuki Nishimura

Hiroyuki Nishimura

Hiroyuki Nishimura in Sapporo, 2005
Born November 16, 1976
Sagamihara, Kanagawa
Nationality Japanese
Known for foundation of 2channel

Hiroyuki Nishimura (西村 博之 Nishimura Hiroyuki, born November 16, 1976) is the founder and a former administrator of the most accessed Japanese message board site[1] 2channel. Until February 2013, he held a position of Director at Niwango Inc., known for its service Nico Nico Douga.[2]

In Japan, he is usually known by his given name, Hiroyuki.[3]

Career

Nishimura was born in Sagamihara, Kanagawa but raised in Tokyo. He founded the company Tokyo Access in 1998 while he was at Chuo University. In May 1999, he opened 2channel while he was studying at the University of Central Arkansas. In June 2001, he founded Irregulars and Partners, Inc with Ichirō Yamamoto, but later left there.

As of January 2007, Nishimura is an advisor to Skip-Up KK, CEO of Tokyo Plus KK, Director of Mirai Kensaku Brazil (Future Search Brazil) Ltd., and also a Director of Niwango Inc., the company that launched Nico Nico Douga.[4]

2ch

Nishimura, Ichirō Yamamoto, and Yoshihiro "Yakin" Nakao, President of Zero Co.Ltd. were the early central management members of 2channel, but Ichirō Yamamoto left the group in 2002, and Nishimura resigned from his company.

Nakao is a server specialist, and has been managing most of the 2channel servers since the Neomugicha incident, a case in 2000 in which a 17-year-old posted messages threatening to hijack a bus, and then went on to kill one person in the hijacking. The event caused a huge wave of user access, and the old servers went down.

As of 2008, 2ch generates revenue upwards of ¥100 million per year for Nishimura.[5] The site is also run by 300 "volunteer administrators" who receive no pay. Nishimura justified this with the comment, "I don't think that's all that different from some dude who opens a convenience store in front of a train station. They can make a million yen a day."[5]

Personality

Although Nishimura has lost some number of libel lawsuits with a considerable amount in penalties, he is quoted in some number of interviews that he has no intention of paying. "If the verdict mandates deleting things, I'll do it," he says. "I just haven't complied with demands to pay money. Would a cell phone carrier feel responsible when somebody receives a threatening phone call?"[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Nielsen Online (Japan) reports on November, 2008 internet usage". Nielsen Online (in Japanese). 2008-12-24.
  2. ↑ "Hiroyuki Nishimura Resigns as Director at Niconico's Niwango". Anime News Network (in Japanese). 2013-02-18. Retrieved 2013-03-13.
  3. ↑ Katayama, Lisa. "Meet Hiroyuki Nishimura, the Bad Boy of the Japanese Internet." Wired. May 19, 2008. 1. Retrieved on January 31, 2009.
  4. ↑ "Niwango Company Info" (in Japanese).
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Meet Hiroyuki Nishimura, the Bad Boy of the Japanese Internet". Wired. May 19, 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-06.

External links