At the end of the day great content wins though. The medium’s convenience really only makes a difference in the “filler” level content we consume.
For the winners of the power law in manga we’ll go wherever the great content happens to be. (That being said japan is so bad at modern global digital licensing / distribution they really have been leaving tons of money on the table for the last decade+)
It's honestly quite depressing to imagine just how much money is left on the table regarding manga. The demand for translations has lead to massive amounts of illegal sharing of digital/digitalized copies and there's even somewhat of a living to be made of unofficial translations (though I know many translate out of self interest).
I'm hoping that there'll eventually be a Steam for manga. I know several companies are trying to become that, but they've all failed to catch on with both consumers and producers.
Shueisha, (the biggest publisher and the one who runs Shounen Jump) has recently become a bit proactive. They released an app named Manga Plus that has most of their popular stuff for free.
It is relatively well designed app and releases come out inside of a week, after their release in Japan.
I still haven't gotten around to using it on a regular basis, but that's because I don't read manga on my phone. But, it is a step in the right direction.
US pricing is silly. But, the US market for this stiff is also fairly tiny. Outside of a small number of mega hits it’s just not worth the company’s time to try and sell to the US market.
Some of this just comes down to cultural differences. Most US novels don’t get translated to Japanese.
I think part of the weirdness of the market is that they, unconsciously, are straddling the "content" and "souvenir/collectible" market. It's sort of like vinyl records today in that regard.
I'm a moderate enthusiast-- probably have like 200 volumes of English translations. I am not really interested in digital platforms, both because then you get no physical souvenir, and because I don't trust them to not implode suddenly. I suspect most long-term fans have a series or two they loved but had to give up on because the translator went bust or it disappeared from whatever service they subscribed to. Once bitten, twice shy...
For the winners of the power law in manga we’ll go wherever the great content happens to be. (That being said japan is so bad at modern global digital licensing / distribution they really have been leaving tons of money on the table for the last decade+)