South Korea’s webtoon companies target global takeover

Because the creator of a sequence that has attracted 1.2bn reads, Rachel Smythe is without doubt one of the world’s main webtoons creators. However in her native New Zealand, virtually nobody appears to know what she does.

“If I’m going to a celebration, folks can be like: ‘I don’t know what that’s,’” stated Smythe, whose graphic novel primarily based on her ‘Lore Olympus’ sequence topped the New York Occasions bestseller record final yr. “And once I inform them that I bought a job with an app that was based in Korea, they are saying: ‘Rachel, it appears like a rip-off — are you going to be OK?’”

Webtoons, comedian strips which can be designed to be learn on a smartphone, are South Korea’s newest cultural export to interrupt out of Asia after the worldwide success of Ok-pop superstars BTS and Netflix sensation Squid Recreation.

They’re already large enterprise in Japan. In January final yr Piccoma, the Japanese webtoon subsidiary of Korea’s Kakao Leisure, achieved month-to-month revenues of $96mn, making it the second-top grossing non-gaming app on the planet. It was second solely to TikTok, surpassing YouTube’s app and Tinder.

Now webtoons are breaking into the mainstream. All of Us Are Lifeless, a South Korean zombie apocalypse coming-of-age drama that started life as a digital comedian on the Naver Webtoon platform, was on the finish of February probably the most watched non-English language present on Netflix. Kakao webtoons Itaewon Class, Shifting, and Dr Mind have been efficiently was TV sequence on Netflix, Disney+, and Apple TV+ respectively.

However Smythe’s expertise illustrates how webtoons nonetheless stay unknown to many outdoors East Asia, at the same time as they collect a burgeoning military of younger non-Asian followers and goal the American market.

One of many pioneers of the trade is Kim Jun-koo, a software program engineer who was pissed off by the sluggish loss of life of conventional Korean manhwa comedian books within the wake of the Asian monetary disaster within the late Nineties.

His webtoon platform Naver Webtoon, which he based in 2004, is now the world’s largest, boasting 750,000 creators and 82mn month-to-month energetic customers. Gross merchandise quantity, a metric for the sum of money spent by customers throughout the app, elevated from $492mn in 2019 to $900mn in 2021.

“A webtoon will not be a digital model of a comic book e-book. It’s a comedian that has been created digitally,” stated Kim. “In Korea, comedian books have been fading away, it was an instance of a dire scenario resulting in innovation.”

Main platforms like Naver Webtoon and Kakao Webtoon supply creators instruments to create and add webtoons at no cost, giving audiences a near-unlimited vary of content material.

“There isn’t a style limitation in webtoons, and the genres are very various,” stated Jang Min-gi, professor of media communications at Kyungnam College. “Customers can see them on the transfer, entry them in a short time and think about them in a really quick span of time.”

With a whole bunch of hundreds of creators and tens of hundreds of thousands of month-to-month readers, webtoon corporations are in a position to deploy a variety of monetisation methods. Some use a YouTube-style mannequin of attracting massive audiences with free content material, others a Netflix-like mannequin of attracting paying subscribers for the preferred sequence or a “microtransaction” fee mannequin favoured by gaming apps.

“The enterprise mannequin has now developed extra into making readers pay for the subsequent episodes in the event that they wish to learn them instantly . . . if the story is enjoyable and compelling, readers gained’t wish to wait,” stated Tune Jin-woo, head of platform operation administration at Kakao Leisure, which operates Kakao Webtoon.

Analysts and trade leaders describe a “virtuous circle”, whereby profitable diversifications into different media entice legions of worldwide followers, who’re then turned on to webtoons as they search out the supply of their favorite tales and characters.

“It prices rather a lot to supply movies and cleaning soap operas, particularly fantasy movies, whereas making comics requires little cash however can have good visible results,” stated Park Jeong-seo, head of webtoon enterprise at Kakao Leisure.

In addition to exporting their very own audiences to international platforms, Korean platforms have set about “importing” international audiences by means of offers giving them entry to what Kim Jun-koo describes as “tremendous IP”.

In 2019, Kakao Leisure entered right into a collaboration with American comedian e-book writer DC Comics. Naver Webtoon has entered into partnerships with DC, its rival Marvel, Archie Comics, and Hybe, the South Korean enterprise behind BTS.

Each platforms have constructed loyal audiences in Europe, Latin America, and south-east Asia. Naver Webtoon, which affords providers in French, Spanish and German, is launching its personal European company, whereas Kakao Webtoon launched in Thailand and Taiwan final yr.

“We’re now specializing in increasing into the US, which is the world’s largest content material market. To turn into profitable there, we have to make webtoons tailor-made for American tastes,” stated Park Jeong-seo of Kakao Leisure, which acquired Los Angeles-based webtoon writer Tapas Media final yr in a deal value $510mn.

Naver Webtoon’s 14mn American customers constituted 17 per cent of its world readership, in contrast with 25 per cent in South Korea, 15 per cent in south-east Asia, 8 per cent in Japan and 4 per cent in Europe.

Final yr, it accomplished the $600mn acquisition of Canadian firm Wattpad, a platform for user-generated written content material with 94mn customers of its personal.

In addition to giving the corporate entry to new customers in international markets, executives consider the acquisition will assist them to drive up the standard of their creations by partnering with promising illustrators.

“There are two strategies of telling tales — one visible, and one written — so if we deliver these collectively, it’s only going to be stronger,” stated Aron Levitz, president of Wattpad.

Naver Webtoon CEO Kim Jun-koo stated that whereas his firm’s ambitions have been backed by its deep-pocketed mother or father, Korean net portal Naver, “we’re planning to have extra aggressive acquisitions, and if we’d like bigger funding, then we’re planning to assessment an IPO or exterior financing.”

As webtoon platforms goal the US, analysts have questioned whether or not Korea’s “digital snack tradition” will resonate with an American viewers.

However executives and creators are putting their confidence in a bunch of customers that they argue is routinely missed: younger ladies and teenage women. Of Naver Webtoons’ US customers, over 70 per cent are below 24. Younger ladies represent 80 per cent of Wattpad’s readership.

It was this demographic that powered Rachel Smythe’s ‘Lore of Olympus’ webtoon primarily based on the Greek fable of the romance of Persephone and Hades to the highest of each digital and bodily best-seller charts.

“Younger ladies are so passionate and simply have a lot to offer, but typically the issues that they like are insulted and seemed down upon,” stated Smythe.

“However that is an app the place the issues that they like are celebrated and handled with respect. I believe that’s why it’s doing so properly.”

Further reporting by Kang Buseong