4chan, a simple image-based bulletin board where anyone can post comments and share images, has been acquired by Hiroyuki Nishimura, a pioneer of Japanese web culture and founder of 2Channel, an early anonymous online message board, reported The New York Times.
“I’m proud to be taking Mr. Christopher Poole’s place as the owner of 4chan,” Mr. Nishimura said in a statement, reported the publication house. “I’ve long admired 4chan’s place on the web as a producer of anonymous and Internet culture, and look forward to continuing to grow and develop the site and support the community.”
Christopher Poole, the founder of 4chan, said that 2channel, with a strong focus on anime and Japanese culture, was the website that inspired him to create 4chan.
“Hiroyuki is literally the only person in the world with as much if not more experience than myself in running an anonymous, large destination community that serves tens of millions of people,” Mr. Poole said in an interview to the NY Times. “He’s the great-grandfather of all of this.”
Though the message board has grown steadily over the years, when compared to other competitors in this field, such as Reddit and Imgur, 4chan is a fraction of their size. Mr. Poole treated it the more as a hobby than a business.
“A hobby doesn’t really scale or survive,” said Mr. Poole, who in the months before his departure trained others to take over the site. “I can treat it more like a business by bringing people on, giving them responsibility and training them.”
Mr. Poole did not reveal the terms of the acquisition, and said he did not expect to be actively involved in 4chan’s future development. Stepping down from daily maintenance of the site in January, he handed over the reins to a handful of part-time deputies who manage it.
Pointing out the similarity between 4chan and 2Channel, Mr. Poole said that about 20 percent of 4chan is dedicated to Japanese culture and anime graphic content, which is also much of the most popular content found on 2Channel.
“With the right resources, there’s a lot of opportunity there that I’ve just never explored,” Mr. Poole said.
