Expansion of Naver and Kakao Webtoons... Collaboration with Anime, Movies, and Dramas

Naver Webtoon Expands Recognition by Collaborating with Renowned US and Japanese Companies
KakaoPage Launches Successive Movies and Dramas Following the Hit 'Itaewon Class'

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-gyu Lee] Naver and Kakao Webtoons are rapidly expanding their business areas by collaborating with animations, movies, and dramas. With the participation of famous overseas companies in these collaborations, the global recognition of domestic webtoons is expected to further increase.

According to Naver on the 1st, Naver Webtoon, which has 60 million monthly active users (MAU), is strengthening its global competitiveness in the secondary video content business. Starting with Naver Webtoon's "Tower of God," the intellectual properties (IPs) of "God of High School" and "Noblesse" are being sequentially animated and will be broadcast this year in Korea, the United States, and Japan. This is the first case where domestic webtoon IPs are animated overseas with the participation of global animation companies.

In this project, the American animation company "Crunchyroll" is participating as a major investor and distributor, raising expectations. Crunchyroll provides an animation-specialized streaming service with over 2 million paid users worldwide. Since Crunchyroll services Latin America and Europe as well as the United States, Naver Webtoon expects to broaden its global foothold through this opportunity. Leading Japanese animation studios also took charge of production. "Telecom Animation Film" was responsible for producing Tower of God, "MAPPA" handled God of High School, and "Production I.G" produced Noblesse.

Naver Webtoon anticipates that the video adaptation of webtoon IPs will be actively carried out not only domestically but also overseas. Kim Jun-gu, CEO of Naver Webtoon, said, "Naver Webtoon, which has rapidly grown to surpass 10 million MAU in North America, has been recognized for its global potential as original content," adding, "We hope this will be an opportunity for excellent works of Naver Webtoon and domestic webtoons to gain more attention overseas and step onto the global stage."

Expectations are also high for secondary contents based on KakaoPage's own IPs. Starting with the popularity of the webtoon "Itaewon Class" this year, dramas and movies based on KakaoPage's IPs such as "Memorist," "Contract Friendship," "Ssanggab Pocha," and "Summit" are being launched one after another.

"Contract Friendship" is a coming-of-age story about high school students that received over 16 million cumulative views and a rating of 9.9 on Daum Webtoon. The drama "Would You Like to Have Dinner Together?" which will premiere on May 4, is based on the webtoon of the same name serialized on Daum Webtoon and KakaoPage, and it recorded 130 million cumulative views. Daum Webtoon's "Ssanggab Pocha" is also scheduled to be broadcast as a drama with the same title on May 20. Additionally, the movie "Summit" is one of the anticipated works, based on Daum Webtoon's "Summit: Steal Rain 3." Director Yang Woo-seok, who wrote the webtoon, also directed the film, enhancing the work's completeness.

KakaoPage plans to expand the distribution of secondary contents such as dramas and movies based on its own IPs, increasing touchpoints with consumers. In the case of "Itaewon Class," which caused a sensation in the first quarter, the "Super Webtoon Project" campaign was conducted alongside the drama broadcast, resulting in good outcomes in cumulative subscriber numbers and cumulative views. As of mid-January, the cumulative subscriber count increased from 6.4 million to 15 million, and cumulative views rose from 240 million to 360 million after the broadcast.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.