Anime Platform Hummingbird.me Rebrands and Launches as Kitsu.io

Anime platform Hummingbird.me has rebranded as Kitsu.io, setting its sights on becoming the preeminent means for anime and manga fans to track, share and discover more of what they love. The rebranding includes a total rewrite of the platform.

The newly named Kitsu.io will provide anime fans with a means to track and keep up to date with new anime and manga. Fans can discover new anime and socialize with others in the community via the new platform’s personal and global activity feeds.

“Kitsu goes beyond being merely a utility for you to track your progress in your shows and manga. We’re focusing heavily on the social aspect of anime and manga too,” says founder and lead designer Josh Fabian. “Leveraging similar technology to sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Twitch, the new platform makes it easier than ever before to find like-minded anime fans and discuss new trends and finds.”

Kitsu uses machine learning to personalize each user’s activity feed, incorporating a tech and design based approach to help build and improve the social side of anime and manga. This is a new offering in an otherwise dated industry on the web. Too many existing avenues that anime and manga fans use to connect haven’t changed in the last 10 years or more; the whole anime industry as a whole  simply isn’t geared towards the modern web.

Anime in the United States is big business. The total market worth is was $2.7 billion in 2014, which was much smaller than markets in Japan and China, which weigh in at $14.1 billion and $31 billion respectively in the same year. Roughly 600 anime films are downloaded every minute or, to put it another way, 10 every second.

“My goal for Kitsu is to see it become the number one platform that anime fans use to connect with each other,” Fabian continues. “There is a real dearth of quality platforms available out there, and we want to become the biggest, like the IMDB of the anime world.”