As someone who has visited Anime Expo every year since the company has existed. Talked to the people running it who couldn't give me a straight answer on who to talk to for PR and seen it change hands it someone makes sense of how bad it failed.
We have to start back in 2012. In an effort to curb anime piracy many Japanese anime companies banded together to create Daisuki. Its mission, provide a legal place to watch subbed anime in a reasonable amount of time and get manga legally. Daisuki started off a web-site and then eventually an app. The site came out in 2013, but the app took quite a while longer. It wasn't considered that great a service for anime and slided in the back of people's minds if they wanted to watch anime with some many other legal providers online. In 2014 Daiskuki became Anime Consortium Japan and got investment from more anime companies. The Daisuki site retained the name even though it was now run by the Anime Consortium Japan.
After all that Bandai Namco, which came aboard with Anime Consortium Japan took on ownership of the whole thing in March of this year. Now Daisuki will end all operations by Oct 31, with the site ending earlier in September and the app Oct 2.
Now with the time, effort and money put in; that's a huge failure on the part of the various Japanese companies and Japanese government, which also kicked in money through Cool Japan.
It also shows how bad Bandai Namco is in the West as it killed its own American division, Bandai Namco Entertainment years ago with poor overseas management and questionable business practices forced on the American side of the business. And is now killing yet another business.
Bandai Namco is a powerhouse in Japan, but here in the US it's considered a pretty worthless company that makes anime video games and little else...maybe constant rehashes of Pac-Man.
For those who follow the Japanese anime industry it's a sad state of affairs.
