Naver Invests Additional 60.5 Billion KRW in Web Novel Platform 'Munpia'... Stake Reaches 56.2%

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Naver Webtoon has become the largest shareholder by acquiring additional shares of the domestic web novel platform 'Munpia.'

On the 16th, Naver announced that Naver Webtoon acquired 1,820,061 shares of Munpia. The acquisition amount was 60,518,848,311 KRW, and the shareholding ratio after acquisition is 56.26%.

Previously, on the 10th, Naver Webtoon had acquired 3,255,511 shares of Munpia for 108,248,836,435 KRW. At that time, Naver Webtoon's shareholding was 36.08%.

Munpia, established in 2002, is a leading domestic web novel platform. It started as an internet community and converted to a corporation in 2012. The number of registered authors reaches 47,000. Its corporate value was estimated at 300 billion KRW.

Naver and Kakao are actively competing to acquire webtoon and web novel platforms. After Naver acquired the world's largest web novel platform 'Wattpad' earlier this year, Kakao responded by acquiring the North American web novel platform Radish and the webtoon platform Tapas.

The competitive acquisitions by Naver and Kakao are aimed at securing intellectual property (IP) rights for webtoons and web novels. Securing webtoon and web novel IP allows for business expansion into dramas, movies, and more.

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