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Mangafox & Co. - How NOEZ does Business


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#1
ZakinYo

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Original Topic
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I'm sure a good few of you are familiar with NOEZ - the company that runs Mangafox, which is an english aggregator for manga and has been inconsiderate of any scanlator's wishes. I'm sure that you also know that they attract millions of visitors to their site. The estimate given by NOEZ is around 80 million visits. This means that they earn an amount in thousands from Mangafox daily. That's quite the amount, right?

Mangafox is just one of their many sources for revenue. More commonly known sites owned by NOEZ are Wallpaperfox.com, Wallpaperhere.com, Mangahere.com, Animehere.com and Anime-eden.com. Some have the same whois info and are listed under the contact jacky@noez.com and based in New York. They all bring in ad revenue. Anime-eden is now defunct, much to the dismay of its subcribers. That's right, subcribers. Anime-eden had a subscription for the many anime series it hosted that had been fansubbed by others. They also have an online store at www.otakushop.com that sells merchandise with designs that have been taken from manga. They are running online businesses with a large profit margin that is dependent on piracy. It is unfair to the folk who spend a lot of their time scanlating and/or fansubbing the work for others and no profit. Most of all, it is unfair on the anime and manga industry who produce wonderful pieces of work for the enjoyment of us fans.

Other lesser known sites owned by NOEZ would be Otakuzone.com, Animeonline.net and game321.com. Yes, that last website is a site dedicated to online games. They operate under the name 'Ngames Limited' for their gaming ventures. You also won't find much about these in a whois search because NOEZ use private domain registration.

Currently, NOEZ have established profitable businesses in the online gaming, animation and comic book industry. All profit gained off of the hard work of others. I can't imagine what their cumulative revenue could be, but it's pretty obvious that they barely spend money on much besides themselves and server costs for their sites. That's a large profit margin. They then take that money and invest a minimum amount in other less shady business ventures, such as their games. However, even their games cause you to raise an eyebrow. "The anime-inspired “Pockie Ninja” is a blatant rip-off and an attempt at another project with minimum effort and huge profits. Again, the efforts and intellectual property of other individuals have been profitable for NOEZ. They rely hugely on the ignorance of their visitors and their customers.

It is definite that they operate in China. When searching for their parent company in chinese ( which is 'Hangzhou promise of science and technology' according to Google translate), the results are mainly job vacancy sites with the same contact details. The most interesting result to surface is this, which reveals the name of a 'President' of the company. A certain Ong Yong Ye (I expect there's a translation issue. Google translate's a bitch) seems to be the president of Hangzhou promise of science and technology. I can't provide much concerning Mr.Ye because I don't know any chinese. However, I expect Mr.Ye is a fake.

So far, a lot of names have popped up. NOEZ. Ngames Limited. Hangzhou promise of science and technology. It's pretty clear that they specialise in deception and thieving. More people need to know and understand their true nature and the way they operate. I also doubt whether this is all there is to them. Who knows? I might also learn chinese now.

Edit: I noticed Noez.com.cn is down, so I replaced a link with a screencap.

Edited by mhh, 16 April 2012 - 06:12 AM.

Nothing to see here. Now, move along.

#2
krytyk

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As i, and few of our members suspected, i was pretty sure that sites like mangahere are part of the same group, i've noticed few similarities ... like the hosts all these sites use for their images and such~~.

Now, i'm sure ~ that i was right Posted Image.

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#3
Taijutsu363

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Wow i was not aware how deep all this ran thats crazy
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#4
hados9

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Wow this is some crazy stuff they basicly own everything that is of great influence to the Otaku community -.- and this need to be spread around so that everyone can find out and learn to hate mangafox and the company and nice work Zakin yo

like post from me :)

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#5
Asa

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Hi, just found this thread while i googled Noez, since there website (noez.com) wasn´t functioning anymore.

My name is Asa and i´m Admin of zomgforums, the forums of the former streaming site zomganime. Our site was sold in 2009 by his owner to Noez
and since then everything we worked for has been ruined. In the beginning Noez had one of their ppl as additional Admin to our Forum so he could
be in contact with us, as we all were still working on the mainsite, adding new episodes and repairing broken links. At first they were nice asking us
about everything before they changed something, but after some times we came to the site just to see it has a new Design, which had a lot of flaws
and also on some pages, terrible chinese english, nobody could understand, They said it was just a test. The test design was never removed and some ppl
left the staff because of the chinese, they were the owners but what they did was just crap.
Some users of the mainsite (who never visited the forums) were asking why we did this and we tried to explain
that it was the new owners ideas that slowly were ruining the site. After a while most of the visitors were used to it and didn´t complain anymore,
while some of our staff wanted to go because of the "chinese overlords" and some others were just banned for saying "too directly" what they thought
(yeah if that isn´t chinese thinking i dunno what else).
After the next reboot of the mainsite nobody of us had access to the wordpress login of the site anymore and we were just Forum staff from this time.
Angry users came to the forums asking what the hell we were doing, that their favorite series was gone and nobody repaired the links
and all we could do was just say, that we can´t reapair them any longer.
The last part was that zomganime as a url and site name got deleted....it is now animehere.com!
We were the #2 of the animestreaming sites a few years ago, now all the work was for nothing.

http://traffic.alexa...=zomganime.com

We once had a reach of 0,06%-0,07% and even with 0,01% we were still better than animehere is now!

Noez is still based in Hanghzou, but most of the money is going over their USA account in New York.
The company was never interrested in, what we thought is right. If they had listend to us, they obviously could have made a ton
more money, but it looks like they don´t want anyone else to interfere with their site.
Their international site is down, but noez.com.cn is still working, also the deleted every detail you could find of them on all their sites,
only with a "who is", you can see that all the sites are still them, i guess with all the lawsuits they don´t wanted to be on the "about us" sites anymore^^

One week ago the link on animehere, to the forums (which were still zomgforums) got changed to another Forum, looks like they still don´t like
Anti-Chinese talk in their Forums :D

So the best is to stay away from that company if you don´t want to make money for them without getting anything for yourself ;)

Edited by Asa, 14 October 2011 - 01:48 PM.


#6
Chronicle

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I browse through otakushop, but looking at the product, it really isn't nice, more like fake.., are people really gonna buy those thing?
i would really considering go to jlist rather than that cheap handmade product... (...)
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#7
Gorga George Naibaho

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Always suspected that Mangafox and Mangahere are run by the same people. I am half Chinese and I must say that it is not impossible for my "blood relatives" to do such things without even thinking twice... And to think that China's government censors their internet content heavily.

Anyway, I am new to the forum, glad to be able to join.

#8
EdHuCast

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Thanks for all of this information. For awhile I was using mangafox as my home place for manga, but then I started to notice in mangas that the scanlators hated them. Now I know. I was using mangareader/ visiting scanlators sites to read manga. I really do like this site. It has a home like feeling that the other sites never really had. To me at least. So thank you again. I also like that you guys give credit where it belongs, where most sites never even mention the people who make it all happen.

#9
Zoro

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Thank you for raising my awareness about Mangafox. It had been my "backup" site after Onemanga went down, but then I started noticing the watermarks on chapters such as "Courtesy of the leechers at Mangafox". It cracked me up, whoever thought of that is a genius. xD In all seriousness, I stopped using the site. Now I only go to their forums to dig information about Tower of God. >.> <.<

Thanks for all of this information. For awhile I was using mangafox as my home place for manga, but then I started to notice in mangas that the scanlators hated them. Now I know. I was using mangareader/ visiting scanlators sites to read manga. I really do like this site. It has a home like feeling that the other sites never really had. To me at least. So thank you again. I also like that you guys give credit where it belongs, where most sites never even mention the people who make it all happen.


Same here. Batoto has the best design of manga readers out there. The forums are also exceedingly good and the only flaw is the low user base. This, however, seems to be changing since I see more and more people on the threads that used to be empty. Batoto is my home now. +_+


Almost forgot to mention the quality. It's over lv9000!!!

Edited by Zoro, 24 October 2011 - 07:12 AM.

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#10
Hatsune Miku

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Thanks for all of this information. For awhile I was using mangafox as my home place for manga, but then I started to notice in mangas that the scanlators hated them. Now I know. I was using mangareader/ visiting scanlators sites to read manga. I really do like this site. It has a home like feeling that the other sites never really had. To me at least. So thank you again. I also like that you guys give credit where it belongs, where most sites never even mention the people who make it all happen.


I agree. It makes me feel bad for all the times I used Mangafox. However, I'm here now and I tend to give support to all the Scanlation groups who take their time and put hardwork into giving us quality scans that we can enjoy.

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#11
Graeystone

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Thank you for raising my awareness about Mangafox. It had been my "backup" site after Onemanga went down, but then I started noticing the watermarks on chapters such as "Courtesy of the leechers at Mangafox". It cracked me up, whoever thought of that is a genius. xD In all seriousness, I stopped using the site. Now I only go to their forums to dig information about Tower of God. >.> <.<


Still think this is true - One Manga got SCREWED. They were number 1 for one reason - they followed the wishes of the publishers(like VIZ) and the scan/translator groups. If a group said, "Wait XX hours before posting.", OM would do just that. If a group didn't want their work posted at all, OM would do that to. Visitors liked OM's integrity and chose OM as their online reader.
Then it happened - first was the mess with how lolicon(and Seinin style Ecchi) was handled in manga like Dance of the Vampire Bund. OM did find a workaround to that though. Then the real screw-job happened and OM was the ONLY online reader that I knew of that actually shut down except for its forums.

The more I hear about MangaFox, I more I can't shake the feeling they had a hand in it. Being a Chinese company that close to the Japanese manga publishers doesn't ease my mind at all.

Edited by Graeystone, 31 October 2011 - 08:32 PM.

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#12
Redemption

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To be completely honest, I feel somewhat uncomfortable reading some of this(only for me personally) since i'm Chinese but given the information that has been provided, I think the hate is completely valid. Many Chinese companies are notorious for gaining huge profit through malicious means and after reading this, NOEZ seems to be no exception. I also had Mangafox as my backup reader after OM went down and really was ignorant to all the complaints about it until some months in when I actually went directly to scanlators for some releases and saw how Mangafox(and some other online readers) disrespected them and their rules. At the time i thought that it was kind of ridiculous for the website to ignore this since it only deterred the scanlators from releasing but after looking into them a little further, it really does not shock me. I bet to them, this site's purpose is just to fatten the pockets of the ones who run them. Heck, most of them probably don't even care much for manga or else they might have had a sense of decency. I hope this site stays true to providing manga while keeping in mind of both the scanlators and the original publishers.(and maybe steal some hundre....millions of readers from mangafox)

btw: only some relatives of mine live in China and after going back, the only thing i have to say is....food poisoning....and maybe facebook deprivation. Pretty sure my relatives are not in any of this shady business though :o

Edited by Redemption, 01 November 2011 - 12:02 AM.


#13
toodles

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I actually had no idea, but I'll be reading from here or directly from scanlators' websites from now on.

#14
stunfire

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I never new this about Mangafox 0_0
good thing I don't use it anymore.
I liked that trolling idea lol

#15
Kobato <3

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This is an alarming issue. I also was using Mangafox and Mangareader after OneManga shut down. I started to notice in the mangas I read, that the scanlators had notes like "Mangafox is leechers/bad/scum etc". I turned a blind eye to it and kept reading. Now the message seems to be getting more large, and now I started seeing watermarks on the manga pages like "Thanks to the leechers at mangafox" and another comments. I was like "why all the hate towards Mangafox?" and started using Google and reading around. Then I found out the truth about Mangafox/Noez and how Batoto is generally the most acceptable "online manga reading" site by Scanlators.

While it is hard to drop Mangafox with all of its features and options at this point for me and start moving here to Batoto, I am making an effort in moving over and using Batoto as my "home base" for manga reading. I started to feel for the Scanlators and even fansubbers who dedicate their time and effort into providing Manga and Anime for its fans without the drive for profit. The ones who respect Japanese publishers wishes who ask for licensed work to be removed. These codes have been followed since the beginning of fansubbing and scanlating. For someone like Noez to change all of that and take free fan made work and use it for personal profit without care of the source they took their stuff from is lecherous and vile. I still dont understand why onemanga was shut down while mangafox continues to exist despite onemanga respecting the wishes of the publishers and did what they were asked. While mangafox still has to this day manga that were licensed years ago and were asked to remove it numerous times. Though it might be hard to get away from Mangafox and they have manga there and is not available on Batoto that I actually read, I expect to settle down and use Batoto from now on to be on the "good side". I hope more people catch on to this ongoing issue and follows my lead as well.

#16
Asahina

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Out of all the sites the NOEZ company: Anime-Eden.com was the only one I saw as a necessity. Too bad it's dead.
BTW, I don't think MangaFox will be dying anytime soon. Is there really a way to hack and kill mangafox?

How long do you expect Batoto to reach MangaFox level of popularity?
Do you think that using the name "batoto" instead of "manga" was a smart move?
Isn't mangafox the oldest & most popular reading site to exist to this day?
I swear, we need to hire that guy from "Bloody Monday" and hack their behinds.

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#17
Sieg

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Out of all the sites the NOEZ company: Anime-Eden.com was the only one I saw as a necessity. Too bad it's dead.
BTW, I don't think MangaFox will be dying anytime soon. Is there really a way to hack and kill mangafox?

How long do you expect Batoto to reach MangaFox level of popularity?
Do you think that using the name "batoto" instead of "manga" was a smart move?
Isn't mangafox the oldest & most popular reading site to exist to this day?
I swear, we need to hire that guy from "Bloody Monday" and hack their behinds.


Not sure why you would want to "hack" Mangafox. This is a site for reading manga, and for scanlators to get something back, due to ads 'n all that. Should have nothing to do with criminal activities, which hacking is. Noez are horrible, but they're just making money.

Edited by Vaygr, 23 November 2011 - 11:01 AM.


#18
krytyk

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Out of all the sites the NOEZ company: Anime-Eden.com was the only one I saw as a necessity. Too bad it's dead.
BTW, I don't think MangaFox will be dying anytime soon. Is there really a way to hack and kill mangafox?

How long do you expect Batoto to reach MangaFox level of popularity?
Do you think that using the name "batoto" instead of "manga" was a smart move?
Isn't mangafox the oldest & most popular reading site to exist to this day?
I swear, we need to hire that guy from "Bloody Monday" and hack their behinds.


The oldest manga reader existing to this day... rather than mangafox... wouldn't that be crazy's manga?

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#19
Cyrus

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Wow, I never knew about some of that. I'm another that was using OM and had mangafox as a backup, and then switched to MF (temporarily) until I found mangatoshokan... and those were glorious days until that got hit hard (and is now only for manhwa)... taking me back to MF until I started seeing angry pages specifically naming mangafox, at which point I saw a throwout to batoto on /a/ and been using this ever since.

So many sites owned by noez.. need to find a way to alert more about the injustice going on here and to guide them here.

I also really hope we don't get onemanga'd or toshokan'd.

#20
Kobato <3

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The thing that is getting to me is that at Mangafox, some of the ignorant posters there are putting up threads asking like "what is the deal with all of these watermarks slamming mangafox by the scanlators?" and the veteran posters are basically saying that scanlators are immature children who are picking on mangafox because they did nothing wrong and scanlators are ruining it for everybody. Thats not what is really bugging me. What is bugging me is that there are people out there actually BLAMING the scanlators for this situation to get as big as it did and how it had to come to this. Yea the ones that are providing the scanlations in the first place and just want to protect their work is getting blasted because they are making life of the lurkers at Mangafox more harder in reading their work. You would think the big "F*** you Mangafox" watermarks would actually tell you that mangafox must have did something bad to piss off the scanlators, the sources of the manga they enjoy. But I guess they dont realize, or choose to remain ignorant/in denial. And sadly there is ALOT of them, you really wont see a dent in Mangafox activity for a good while, shame.

Edited by Kobato <3, 24 November 2011 - 05:29 PM.