Naver and Kakao "I am No.1 in the Southeast Asian Webtoon Market"... Fierce Rivalry

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] The competition between Naver and Kakao to dominate the Southeast Asian webtoon market is fierce. Both companies are claiming to be the 'number one' in this market based on different criteria, engaging in a battle of wills.

On the 13th, Naver announced that its subsidiary Naver Webtoon has surpassed 12 million monthly active users (MAU) in Indonesia, Thailand, and Taiwan, securing the top position.

Specifically, Indonesia recorded 6.9 million MAU, while Thailand and Taiwan recorded 3.5 million and 1.5 million respectively.

Naver also reported that Tappytoon, operated by Contents First in which Naver Webtoon has invested, ranked second in Indonesia and Thailand following Naver Webtoon. Tappytoon is a global webtoon platform serving 4 million users across 190 countries. In March, Naver Webtoon acquired a 25% stake in Contents First to establish a business partnership and secure content.

Cha Hana, Naver Webtoon’s Thailand and Indonesia business leader, said, "Tappytoon has already established itself as the most familiar webtoon platform for both users and creators in Thailand, and is showing good trends in transaction volume in Indonesia and Taiwan as well. With a solid webtoon ecosystem and content competitiveness, we will continue to firmly establish ourselves as the leading Southeast Asian platform where creators want to showcase their works, delivering overwhelming results."

Earlier, Kakao’s subsidiary Kakao Entertainment announced on the 11th that ‘Kakao Webtoon’ ranked first in the comic app category in the app markets of Thailand and Taiwan. Kakao based its claim on the number of new downloads.

According to Kakao Entertainment, on the 7th, ‘Kakao Webtoon’ ranked first in the ‘Comics’ category on the Thailand Google Play Store and second in the ‘Entertainment’ category on the Apple App Store. Notably, Thailand surpassed a cumulative daily transaction amount of 300 million KRW just four days after service launch. Taiwan, which launched on the 9th, also ranked first in the comics category and sixth in the entertainment category, following Netflix, Kakao Entertainment reported.

Hyun Yangwon, head of Kakao Entertainment’s Thailand branch, said, “As soon as we opened the Bangkok office in June last year, we launched official SNS channels and steadily built a webtoon fan base over a year by communicating with customers daily. Since last month, we have been conducting a ‘Webtoon Illegal Distribution Eradication Campaign,’ which seems to have helped raise awareness about protecting the rights of local creators and webtoon industry workers.”

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