Tokyo Otaku Mode Launches News Page, Approaches 10 Million Facebook Likes

Tokyo Otaku Mode’s newly launched News section

Japan-based Tokyo Otaku Mode turned many heads over the past year, mostly because of its enormous fan base on its Facebook page, which now totals nearly 10 million (9.83 million to be exact). For a while, many people (myself included) wondered exactly what it is that this startup intended to do besides share pictures about Japanese Otaku culture on social networks.

But the company has been improving its main website, and today it is launching a key part of that page, with an Otaku news section. All news is in English and categorized into 12 subsections, such as anime, cosplay, figures, games, and manga.

Coinciding with the announcement of this new section, Tokyo Otaku Mode is concluding the ‘invitation-only’ period of access to its site. So now fans of anime, manga, etc., can freely view all the content on Tokyo Otaku Mode.

Visitors can also sign up and create their own content if they choose, as TOM also has a user generated content section.

I’m told that the company intends to drive traffic with its massive Facebook following, and eventually monetize that with some advertising on its main site, sort of in the same way that a site like 9gag does. There is also some possibility for e-commerce in the future as well.

It will be interesting to see where this young startup can go in 2013. So far its popularity – at least on Facebook – has been nothing short of meteoric.