Kyowon Group's First In-House Venture 'Tokkeu' Launched... Multimedia Web Novel Platform

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] Kyowon Group announced on the 24th that it has officially launched its first in-house venture, TOCK.

TOCK is a web novel platform for Generation Z (those born from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s). Considering the content consumption patterns of teenagers, it moves away from the traditional text-centered format to enhance excitement and immersion through audiovisual changes. It offers a ‘multimedia web novel’ by combining a chat-style novel concept with interactive (motion recognition video media) based immersive content. Depending on the novel’s theme or content, videos or background music play, and popup flashes appear while reading, applying elements that increase fun and tension.

The second feature of TOCK is its role as an incubator for emerging writers. It plans to actively support talented new writers by discovering them and operating systematic nurturing programs to help them grow into star authors. In particular, it provides various opportunities to foster the creative aspirations and abilities of teenage youths.

The TOCK platform allows anyone to freely serialize their works. Anyone who wishes to become a web novel writer, regardless of age or gender, including teenagers, can participate by signing up as a member. TOCK also helps strengthen the capabilities of new writers by selecting published works and providing mentoring from experts. Advice is given to improve the quality of works, such as composition direction, plot, and sentence expression. Additionally, a recommendation corner is operated to help new writers’ works be subscribed to more by platform users.

The web novel platform TOCK is available as a mobile application and can be downloaded from the Google Play Store.

Currently, 13 TOCK original works planned and produced in-house and 11 award-winning works from contests are being serialized. New free-serial works are also registered daily. Through agreements with web novel content providers (CP) such as publishers, about 30 popular works will be additionally introduced. The goal is to discover about 500 new writers and secure about 1,000 serialized works within the year.

To commemorate the launch of TOCK and discover new writers, the ‘2nd Web Novel Contest’ will be held from March 1. Any youth in South Korea can participate. Works registered as free serials through the TOCK app by April 9 will be automatically entered. The contest fields are ▲ SF fantasy and science genres ▲ alternate history and romance fantasy, totaling two genres. On April 25, 10 outstanding works will be selected and awarded. Winners will receive opportunities for official serialization and mentoring programs for professional writer training.

A Kyowon Group official said, “In the fiercely competitive webtoon and web novel platform market, we aim to differentiate TOCK by combining multimedia elements and focus on targeting Generation Z. Since Generation Z is the main target, the ultimate goal is for TOCK to serve as a stepping stone for any youth with dreams of becoming a writer to debut and grow into a star author beyond simple work serialization.”

Meanwhile, TOCK was selected as the first in the in-house startup incubation program last September. Since then, it has been verifying business feasibility and commercializing by holding web novel contests. With the launch of this web novel platform, it will proceed with the business in earnest.

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