A short message recently posted on Hiroyuki Nishimura's personal blog sent shock waves across the online community. In a single sentence dated Jan. 2, he announced that he had sold 2channel, his wildly popular Internet forum.
The news, and further revelations that rights to the Web site were handed over to a little-known Singapore-based company, immediately raised concerns and questions among Internet users and the media over the fate of what has been called the world's largest and Japan's most influential online forum.
"I thought it might be interesting if I sold it (2channel) off, to see if there would be any difference if it was owned by a company, rather than myself," Nishimura told The Japan Times this week during the first long interview with the media after he made the surprising announcement.