Nico Nico Douga, Japan’s answer to YouTube (but with a much stronger social element), is now counting 1.5 million paid members. Dwango’s video service hit the milestone on January 3.
Nico Nico Douga hit 21 million users in May last year and reported 1 million paid users on October 13, 2010. Premium membership costs 525 yen (US$6.80) per month.
Nico Nico also operates an integrated social gaming platform called Nico Nico Appli.
This graph shows how the number of paid users on Nico Nico Douga evolved over the years (the service started on December 12, 2006):
