| pixiv | |
 Website logo | |
| Name | pixiv |
| Aliases | pixiv Inc., |
| Genre | Illustration art social networking service |
| Predecessor | crooc Inc. |
| Founded | September 10, 2007 |
| Headquarters address | Sendagaya, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan |
| Parent Company | animate |
| Founder | Takahiro Kamitani |
| Related Companies | Flickr |
| Website | https://www.pixiv.net |
pixivIt is an artist social networking site operated by pixiv Inc., primarily targeting Japanese users. It was once called Japan's most successful artwork submission social networking site and is commonly known in mainland China as P-site or Blue P-site.[1]. Every participant has their own homepage and can rate and comment on works.
Introduction
Pixiv was established by programmer Takahiro Kamitani on September 10, 2007, and was initially developed with the goal of being a social networking site dedicated to artwork, similar to Flickr. Later, due to its rapid rise in popularity, its operation was handed over to the current company. As of February 2018, the total number of users on the site has exceeded 30 million.
Users form a social network of artists by uploading their own artwork to the site and appreciating the work of others to find like-minded partners. The site lacks most of the communication functions found in traditional social networking sites; instead, it establishes connections between artists through features like "Bookmarks," "Follow Artist," and "My Pixiv," and facilitates direct interaction between viewers and artists through "Work Message Boards" and "Ratings."
The website focuses on globalization, not only minimizing the need for text reading through its design but also adding support for multiple languages, including Chinese and English, in the 2010s. It also added features to share to local SNS (such as Sina Weibo) for different language versions of the site. As of August 2009, overseas users accounted for 7% of the total.
History
- Established on September 10, 2007
- Paid membership feature launched in 2009
- February 28, 2011, English version added
- March 9, 2011, allowed customization of covers for self-written novels
- May 12, 2011, "Random User Recommendation" feature added
- May 16, 2011, Simplified Chinese version added
- May 30, 2011, Russian and Korean versions added
- June 29, 2011, French version added
- June 30, 2011, regional rankings were subdivided into prefecture-specific rankings, though it doesn't mean much for us foreigners
- July 19, 2011, added the "Search Suggestions" feature, though at the time it was only available to Premium members
- November 2011, image search can be filtered by image size, drawing tools, etc.
- November 15, 2011, launched the announcement feature
- December 22, 2011, launched the "Booth" feature
- September 20, 2012, allowed logging in withFacebookLogin
- February 6, 2014, stickers can be used in work responses
- June 2014, the "Ugoira" service was launched, allowing the upload of short, silent animations.
- June 27, 2017, launched the feature to organize manga into series
- On the afternoon of September 18, 2017, users in mainland China were unable to access the website, as its DNS resolution results pointed to dedicated IPs used for DNS poisoning in mainland China. The site stated via its official Weibo, "We are currently investigating the reason why pixiv is inaccessible in the China region."[2]. The website did not recover afterwards, but the official Weibo continued to be updated.
- October 4, 2017, opened the "描き方ページ (How to Draw page)"
- January 22, 2018, added the "Features" page
- April 12, 2018, launched the tag translation feature
- May 31, 2018, tag localization was launched, usingCrowdinTraditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, and Korean tag translation suggestions on
- On May 21, 2018, it became possible to submit a work toTwitter
- On May 25, 2018, the European Union passed the latest General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and pixiv updated its privacy policy accordingly.
Characteristics
pixiv's philosophy is that there is no distinction between professional, amateur, and style among creators. It forms a social network through user-created artistic illustrations, creative writing, and other works (excluding most forms of photography) and the responses between users to their respective works. pixiv currently accepts submissions in four categories: illustrations, manga, novels, and ugoira (animated images), and categorizes and searches users' works through a tagging system. The themes may originate from fan art of Japanese anime, manga, and video games, or pure original art. When image content is suitable only for adult audiences and not for children, it is separated through a filter to prevent children from direct browsing; this setting can be modified by turning it on or off in the user's profile.
To browse and post on pixiv, one must register an account beforehand. There are no restrictions on the identity of the registrant, and an invitation from an existing account member is not required to register, but in principle, one person is prohibited from owning multiple accounts. pixiv's basic services are free, and paid pixiv Premium members can use some additional features that provide convenience for daily browsing, but this does not affect the operation of the evaluation system. pixiv is primarily a Japanese website, but users can also choose to display the website's service framework interface in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, or Korean.
Each work's page is equipped with functions such as likes, surveys, tags, adding bookmarks, comments, and work responses to allow other users to participate. Each user has a customizable personal homepage, a BBS-like message board, activity announcements, and a bookmark bar to display their favorite works. Users can set each other as friends with mutual consent, and various types of posted information can be set to be visible only to friends. pixiv features work rankings, and the total score each work receives will affect its position on the rankings.
On-site Events
pixiv regularly holds events in response to holidays such as New Year's Day, Tanabata, Halloween, and Christmas. These events require users to submit works centered around a common theme. Later, during Tanabata 2008, sponsors or the pixiv company began providing prizes, proving that pixiv had grown into a popular art virtual community. Since then, in addition to seasonal events, sponsors have also begun establishing public relations with pixiv, providing prizes to users who create works loved by the public.
Website System
Submission
Click on "Submit Work" on the website's homepage to start submitting.
pixiv currently accepts four types of submissions: illustrations, manga, ugoira (animated images), and novels. Among them, image submissions only accept JPEG, GIF, and PNG formats, with a maximum size of 8MB. If submitting multiple images at once, the limit is 200 images.
The "Tags" and "Age Restriction" fields on the submission page are mandatory. Tags are used to help users search for works, and authors must confirm the age rating of their own works to select "All Ages", "R-18", or "R-18G".
If it is an original work, you can check "Original Work" when submitting, and after submission, it will automatically add the "オリジナル" tag.
If it is an AI-generated work, you can check "AI-generated work" when submitting, and an "AI-generated work" label will be added after submission. AI-generated works will have their own separate rankings.
Users can also choose to "Post to Twitter simultaneously" (requires linking a Twitter account).
If you have a Premium membership, you can directly replace incorrect or incomplete works without deleting comments, and you can also schedule submissions.
Tags
Tags are one of the means to facilitate users in searching for works, and pixiv's search mechanism is primarily based on matching tags.
Users can add tags to their works based on what they have drawn, such as character names and the name of the series the character belongs to, as well as character attributes, work types, etc. If "Do not allow other users to edit tags" is not checked during submission, other users can add missing tags or delete irrelevant tags for the work.
When using tags to search for works, users canCrowdinsubmit English, Traditional/Simplified Chinese, and Korean translations of the searched tags.
Reviews
Premium Membership
Premium membership is one of the website's revenue sources. The fee for pixiv Premium is 550 yen per month, and payments via credit card, PayPal, and Alipay (for 6 months or more) are accepted.
Premium membership features include: replacing works without deleting comments and tags, scheduling submissions, browsing works directly by popularity, converting submitted novels to PDF format, blocking advertisements on the site, and free use of the genuine illustration software CLIP STUDIO PAINT DEBUT, among others.
Rankings
There are daily, weekly, and monthly updates.
Currently, there are also rankings for male/female audiences, rookies, and novels.
The scoring method for rankings is not public.
Because reaching the rankings on the homepage leads to a massive surge in popularity and attracts industry attention, it is a highly contested ground for aspiring illustrators.
However, factors for making the rankings include many things besides skill, such as trends and meme potential; rankings do not absolutely represent skill.
Sub-sites
- pixivision
- A creative media outlet established by pixiv in 2014 to promote Japaneseotakuculture.
- Official website:https://www.pixivision.net
- pixivコミック(pixiv Comic)
- A free online manga platform established by pixiv in June 2012. Some serialized works are exclusive to pixiv Premium members, and it also serializes works from pixiv's own online manga magazine and "ジーンピクシブ" (in collaboration withKADOKAWA).
- Official website:https://comic.pixiv.net/
- pixivノベル(pixiv Novel)
- An online free novel platform established by pixiv, focusing on futuristic, BL, and TL novels, while also serializing novels under pixiv's own novel brand "pixiv mint!".
- Official website:https://novel.pixiv.net/
- pixivゲーム
- A game platform established in 2010, originally designed for pixiv Mobile and later released for PC.
- Official website:http://pixiv-game.com
- pixiv sketch
- An online drawing platform established in 2015.
- Official website:http://sketch.pixiv.net
- BOOTH
- An online shopping website operated by pixiv, primarily selling doujinshi as well as other merchandise.
- Official website:https://booth.pm
- pixiv FACTORY
- A doujinshi production platform established by pixiv.
- Official website:https://factory.pixiv.net
- pixivFANBOX
- FANBOX is a fan communication platform where fans can support creators' activities through long-term sponsorship.
- Official website:https://www.fanbox.cc/
Other Products
Established on August 10, 2017, to facilitate artists purchasing doujinshi at conventions.pixiv PAYElectronic payment service.
Official website:https://pay.pixiv.net/
Kanban Musume
Pixiv itself does not have an official mascot or anthropomorphic character, but it has held official character design recruitment events. For details, please see:pixiv-tan。
External Links
Notes
- ↑ Derived to avoid confusion with another R18 website also abbreviated as "P-site".
- ↑ Original Weibo post:https://weibo.com/2230227495/Fmp0r71Au