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Some of my reason are similar to what those listed above such as don’t know/don’t care, or unhappy with official translation. I do however have one reason that might be one of the bigger reason:

Speed of release

It takes time for an official release to come out legally and more often than not years after the volume has been released in Japan, so instead of waiting around for the legal version to come out, they get caught up with the series via scanlations since they usually come out faster than the legal option.

An official print release, correct? Because…they’re starting to come out often digitally.

Still, I hope you’re not one of those people that tell manga publishers you read a manga online that they’ve already licensed =p

Another reason is cost. Many readers would buy licensed manga if they had the money, and the price came down a bit. Admittedly, it tends to be much cheaper with subscription digital services. But these have been up and down like whackamoles, so it’s hard to know where to go. Print manga has always been exceedingly expensive, putting off all but the most hardcore otaku.

Good point. I remember when manga (or some) used to be $7.99. Well that went up. Then of course there are specific ones that do cost a bit. The problem though is how expensive everything is when it comes to getting the JP files, then doing design, production, translation, etc, so yeah, most people that have a job and are mostly hardcore manga fans who like things in print will go for it. Unfortunately publishers can’t really lower the price, unless they want to lose money lol

As far as I know, the real egregious publisher when it comes to digital manga prices is eManga. Don’t think other publishers charge expensively (well, maybe Viz, but it depends.). Other than that, gotta look out for the special deals when they roll around and stuff.

Another reason that wasn’t mentioned is because readers would like a legal way to read the manga they like. People talk about works they are reading in scanlation because they want the opportunity to buy a professionally translated paper version and they want a way to pay and support the original author.

Maybe it’s got something to do with language as well. I’d say a bit less than half of the people who read English scanlations aren’t native English speakers.

If they were to buy a legal copy they’d most likely buy one in their own language. I know from experience that buying an English legal copy can be disappointing. First there’s shipping: it’s gotten better but back in the days it used to take one whole month via Amazon. Then there’s the language itself: most scanlations are in simple English but of course that’s not the case for legal copies. My sadness back in middle school, after waiting for a month to get my hands on Ôoku, and opening it just to realize that I didn’t understand half of what was written on the first page…
If some people mostly buy copies in another language, maybe they won’t feel much obligations towards the English language publishers.

Then there’s also the problem of “feeling” that the publishers have the copyright. The copyright goes for a specific language plus sometimes specific countries (for example Viz sometimes has the rights for English copies and for Europe, even in non-English speaking countries). If you don’t live in those specific countries nor in an English speaking country, it can be hard to fathom that the said publisher still hold the rights for the English copy even in your country.

Other people don’t feel like they’re stealing anything from English publishers since they aren’t reading English scans instead of English legal copies but instead of their own language legal copies.

I’m a bit disappointed, but not necessarily surprised, by the lack of perspective from those who do. I can understand that the publishers wish to avoid that, though, since it would make them look bad.

It’s not difficult to imagine why scanlations are so popular, in all honesty. Here’s just a few I can think off the top of my head:

1. Expensive.
Manga is expensive in the West and is only becoming more expensive. Digital manga in particular is ridiculous in terms of pricing (like VIZ’s).

2. Series are not licensed.
As simple as that.

3. Legal alternatives are not available where you live.
Simple again.

4. The legal alternatives are poor for one reason or another.
This is the most important one I like to press and it consists of a multide of factors, including digital pricing as mentioned earlier. If you wish to support manga digitally, there’s rarely a proper service to use which makes it feel very unsafe if something were to happen. There is no good place to turn to and no guarantee you, the customer, will break through to the company (unlike if, say, the video game PC game platform Steam were to cease to exist). Plus, once again, restricted regions.

Put all things together and it becomes very unattractive to choose the legal digital alternatives. Since every publisher has their own services with their own set of rules, it becomes a gigantic mess. Crunchyroll is the only service that does it somewhat well, despite a small selection of titles, due to its global availability and subscription fee.

As for physical manga, there’s mainly pricing (especially if you live outside USA) and… lack of space! With way over 500 manga volumes, it’s getting a bit crowded and I’d love a good digital alternative. Sadly, there isn’t one.

True. The thing is though (or at least recently I’ve noticed), when a video game is fan translated but the official version finally comes out, the fan translators always make an attempt to advertise the official release. That rarely, or maybe sometimes, happens with manga series.

But well, that’s just a small observation, don’t have any numbers to support that. Also, both industries are completely different lol