Nico Nico Douga
Nico Nico Douga (ニコニコ動画, Niko Niko Dōga), currently Niconico (ニコニコ, Nikoniko) is a video posting and sharing service provided by Dwango. It was opened on a trial basis on 12 December 2006 and fully launched in January 2007.
The service is characterized by its unique feature of being able to display comments on the screen of the video being played 'as if text is flowing'.
It is known for its influence on Japanese internet culture from the late 2000s to the 2010s, particularly in the fields of anime, games and angura culture, as one of the centres of meme origination.
Compared to YouTube and other video services, it is notable for its superior tagging and search functions, which make it easier to find videos even in more minor genres.
In the past, an amateur video culture flourished, with numerous amateur creators competing in video editing and sound processing techniques, as well as lively creative activities in various genres such as music composition (especially Vocaloid), cover singing, dancing, crafts, explanatory videos, self-produced hand-drawn animations and MAD videos.
Today, although it is not as busy as it was in the heyday, it still has a certain amount of activity as a streaming service with official contracts for anime and drama programs, and as in the past, as a site where amateur video creators post their music, live games, MAD videos, commentary videos and so on.
Service
The site has undergone numerous renewals and service additions and expansions due to the increase in user bases, and the name of the site itself has now been changed to simply Niconico, while Nico Nico Douga is used as one of the services provided by Niconico.
In addition to the video posting service Nico Nico Douga, the current Niconico includes various other services such as the live streaming service Niconico Live, Nico Nico Namahousou (a.k.a. Niconama), an illustration posting service Nico Nico Seiga (Seiga meaning still image in Japanese), and is a counterpart to the Douga (meaning moving pictures) video service which is similar to pixiv, the content library service for creators Niconi Commons, the wiki-style encyclopedia site Nico Nico Encyclopedia, which explains the definition and meaning of every term, the web news site Niconico News, and more.
You can paste Nico Nico Douga videos into the pixiv encyclopedia by entering ［nico:smxxxxxxxx］ (where x is the video ID) on the article edit screen.
Niconico (Official Website)
ニコニコ静画 (Nico Nico Seiga, Illustration Service)
ニコニコ生放送 (Niconico Live)
ニコニ・コモンズ (Niconi Commons)
ニコニコニュース (Niconico News)
ゲームアツマール (Game Atsumaru)
ニコニコのアニメ総合情報サイト：Nアニメ (N Anime)
ニコニコ大百科 - あらゆる言葉を解説する辞典・辞書サイト (NicoNico Encyclopedia, an encyclopedia site that in some cases provides a fuller explanation than the pixiv encyclopedia)
