Hobonichi

Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun (ほぼ日刊イトイ新聞; lit. Almost Daily Itoi Newspaper), also known as Hobonichi (ほぼ日), is a Japanese company run by Hobonichi Co., Ltd. that designs and produces various daily life products such as T-shirts and notebooks. The company was founded by copywriter Shigesato Itoi (a.k.a. "Darling") on June 6, 1998, and it was originally his idea to call the site "Almost Daily" to give it more leeway, as he thought that daily updates would be too much mental pressure and content-wise, but since the site's launch at midnight (Bali time), some content has been updated every day. Originally started as Itoi's personal website, it has grown into one of the most profitable websites in Japan by focusing on sales of goods. In 2012, the website won the Porter Prize. The site currently receives about 1.5 million page views a day, making it the largest personal website in Japan. Annual sales reached 3 billion yen in 2014, despite the fact that the company has not sold any membership-based paid content or advertising space to date.