[Exclusive] Naver Webtoon Europe Corporation Establishment Delayed for 1 Year... "Under Review"

Naver Webtoon is conducting a comprehensive review of its plan to establish a European headquarters corporation.

In March of last year, Naver Webtoon announced plans to establish a European headquarters corporation called ‘Webtoon EU’ (tentative name) in France. The goal was to set up the corporation in the first half of last year and use it as a global business hub.

Once the European headquarters corporation is established, Naver Webtoon would secure business bases in all major markets including Korea, Japan, and Europe, centered on its North American headquarters. Naver Webtoon launched French and Spanish services for its global platform ‘WEBTOON’ in 2019 and added German service in 2021.

However, even though a year has passed since the announcement, Naver Webtoon is still postponing the establishment of the European headquarters corporation. Recently, it has begun a full review of the related plans. There are also talks about the possibility of scrapping the corporation establishment plan altogether.

A Naver Webtoon official said, “We are reviewing it from multiple angles,” but did not provide specific answers regarding the reasons for postponing the establishment of the European corporation.

Industry insiders see this as Naver Webtoon focusing on ‘selection and concentration.’ Naver posted a loss of 369.9 billion KRW in its content business last year, with Naver Webtoon accounting for the largest portion of the content business losses. This was largely due to promotions aimed at expanding users mainly in North America and Japan.

According to the regional profit and loss figures announced by Naver Webtoon for the second quarter of last year, Japan recorded a loss of 9.9 billion KRW, the U.S. 21.8 billion KRW, and other regions including Europe, Taiwan, and Indonesia combined for a loss of 15.7 billion KRW. Rather than immediately establishing a corporation in Europe and strengthening investment, it appears to be a strategy to focus first on North America and Japan.

Meanwhile, Naver Webtoon, which entered the European market in December 2019 as the first domestic webtoon platform to do so, has shown steady growth. In the French comic application revenue rankings, Naver Webtoon has maintained the number one position from last year to the present. The monthly user count reaches 2 million. It also remains within the top 10 in Germany and Spain.

Naver Webtoon plans to continue its European market strategy regardless of the corporation establishment. As of January this year, the number of local works in France has doubled compared to last year. In July of last year, it was the only webtoon platform worldwide to open a booth at the ‘Amazing’ festival held in Paris, France.

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