[2022 Hot IT Companies①] Kakao Entertainment Soars Globally with Webtoons and Metaverse Wings

Building a Massive IP Value Chain Based on 'Webtoon' for Global Expansion in North America, ASEAN, and France
Accelerating New Metaverse Business in Partnership with Netmarble

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] "We will compete with global content companies based on the massive intellectual property (IP) value chain of Kakao Entertainment."

This is the management goal for next year announced by Lee Jin-soo, CEO of Kakao Entertainment, on the 8th. Officially launched earlier this year through the merger of Kakao Page and Kakao M, Kakao Entertainment has shown rapid growth based on innovation in content and platform business, quickly becoming Kakao’s ‘golden child’ subsidiary aiming for annual sales of 1 trillion KRW.

If this year was about building a massive IP value chain through the merger, next year’s strategy is to leverage this content ecosystem to step up as a global company. CEO Lee expressed confidence, saying, "We will triple the global integrated transaction volume of the story business within three years."

◆Conquering the globe with webtoons= The sectors expected to contribute significantly to Kakao Entertainment’s revenue next year are ‘webtoons’ and the ‘metaverse (extended virtual world).’ First, Kakao Entertainment owns the webtoon platform Kakao Webtoon, tailored for the global environment. This platform, which integrates Kakao Entertainment’s IP capabilities and IT technology know-how, was developed over several years to deliver Kakao Entertainment’s IPs with high quality. This year, it expanded into Thailand and Taiwan, surpassing strong competitor Naver Webtoon to claim the industry’s top spot, showing notable achievements.

Kakao Entertainment plans to focus its platform expertise and content capabilities on North America and ASEAN for qualitative revenue growth, and expand its content front to France. Currently, in the North American market, the webtoon platform Tapas and the web novel platform Radish are jointly promoting content, and within the year, Kakao Piccoma will enter France together.

There are high expectations that Kakao Entertainment’s IP power will be reaffirmed in France. With about 100 global localization experts, Kakao Entertainment is nearly ready to supply premium IPs to France. It plans to continue rapid IP supply even after the platform launch.

Additionally, to strengthen the North American and ASEAN markets, Kakao Entertainment has decided to acquire Wuxiaworld, the world’s largest ‘Asian fantasy’ web novel platform, through Radish. This acquisition is a strategic move targeting the North American market. Kakao Entertainment aims to lay the foundation for its global vision of tripling global transaction volume within three years through this.

CEO Lee said, "With strategic focus on the North American and ASEAN markets and an alliance with Piccoma in France, we will root K-story across the world and all languages. We will also establish webtoons and web novels as global mainstreams, enabling more creators to go global while fostering mutual growth between creators and platforms."

◆New growth engine ‘Metaverse’= Achievements in new business areas such as the metaverse are also drawing attention. The metaverse is emerging as a new trend that will lead the future global entertainment industry. In line with this, Kakao Entertainment has participated as a strategic investor in Metaverse Entertainment, a subsidiary of Netmarble F&C. This is the first case of a comprehensive entertainment company entering the metaverse domain.

Kakao Entertainment plans to carry out diverse metaverse projects targeting global audiences by directly deploying personnel. The metaverse project will start with a ‘K-pop virtual idol group.’ Metaverse Entertainment, currently developing characters, plans to debut an idol group next year composed of characters with a unique worldview and distinct personalities.

The production of the idol group will blend the expertise of both companies. Netmarble F&C’s solid MetaHuman technology will be organically combined with Kakao Entertainment’s management capabilities. Kakao Entertainment’s management capabilities are well proven. Through collaborations with various artists, Kakao Entertainment plans and produces 12,000 songs annually and leads the K-pop industry with Melon, the number one music platform with 33 million members. Kakao Entertainment will also conduct various character metaverse projects centered on its own IP and game characters owned by Netmarble F&C.

CEO Lee said, "We expect that the combination of Netmarble F&C’s top-notch character production capabilities and Kakao Entertainment’s global value chain will bring another breakthrough to the new world of the metaverse. Starting with virtual idols, we will not stop our challenge toward the global entertainment market."

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