Moot Sells 4Chan to 2Channel

Christopher ‘Moot’ Poole, founder of the infamous 4Chan message board, has, after twelve years and two billion posts, sold the site to Japanese messaging culture pioneers 2Channel. Control of the site will pass from Moot – who effectively retired from running the site at the start of this year – to 2Channel owner Hiroyuki Nishimura.

Moot made the following announcement on the 4Chan news section:

“Today I’m pleased to announce that Hiroyuki Nishimura, best known as the founder of 2channel, has taken my place as the owner of 4chan.

Hiroyuki is a pioneer in the world of anonymous communities, and can be thought of as the great-grandfather of 4chan. His creation of 2channel in 1999 sparked an era of anonymous-centric web culture in Japan that led to the creation of Futaba Channel, the site that inspired 4chan. None of us would be using 4chan today—or potentially any anonymous image board—if it weren’t for him.

I met Hiroyuki in 2011 and we became fast friends, bonding over our shared passion for creating and managing online communities. He is one of few individuals with a deep understanding of what it means to provide a digital home for tens of millions of people for more than a decade. There is nobody more qualified than Hiroyuki to lead 4chan, and I can’t think of a person better suited for the task.

4chan sits on the eve of two great milestones—its 2 billionth post and 12th birthday. It has been a great privilege to serve as 4chan’s founder and steward for almost twelve years, and I can’t wait to see what lays in store under Hiroyuki’s experienced leadership.”

Neither party has disclosed how much the 4Chan sale cost, but the site had no venture capital nor any full-time employees.

Thank you The Next Web for providing us with this information.