Korean digital comics boost Naver Webtoon’s biz in Japan

Naver Webtoon Ltd., the world’s top digital comics provider, enjoyed robust business in Japan with a record gross merchandise value (GMV) this year thanks to the growing popularity of South Korean cartoons.

Naver Webtoon, the digital comics and novel platform of Korea’s online giant Naver Corp., said on Friday its GMV — the total value of merchandise sold over a given time period via a customer-to-customer exchange site — topped 100 billion yen ($674.9 million) in the January-November period for the first time since launching its Japanese business in 2013.

The value was the total GMVs of LINE Manga, its Japanese-language webtoon service, and eBookJapan, its digital book service platform.

The GMV is reported to have broken Naver Webtoon’s annual target, industry sources said.

Naver Webtoon entered the Japanese market in April 2013 when Naver Corp.’s subsidiary in the country, LINE Corp. launched the LINE Manga app, which provided digital versions of cartoons published in paper books.

Naver Webtoon quickly grew its Japanese business as LINE Digital Frontier Corp., which manages the company’s business in Japan, acquired eBOOK Initiative Japan, a subsidiary of SoftBank Group in 2021.

TEENAGE MERCENARY

Naver Webtoon said Korean digital comics such as “Teenage Mercenary,” which has been serialized on Line Manga since April 2021, accelerated the business growth.

That action series' monthly GMV reached 180 million yen, the largest value for a single LINE Manga webtoon. “The Remarried Empress,” which the platform has been publishing as a series since March 2020, and “The Dragon King’s Bride,” which has been provided since July, each reported monthly GMVs of 100 million yen.

Many popular titles on LINE Manga and eBookJapan are translated digital comics that were first released in Korea, industry sources said.

“Webtoons with a variety of subject matter and round characters attracted readers,” said a Naver Webtoon official. “Interesting content is likely to gain popularity across borders.”

The more famous works Naver Webtoon published, the more its subscriber base grew, according to the company.

LINE Manga is the No. 1 digital comics platform in Japan with 9.9 million monthly active users (MAU) as of the third quarter of this year. Naver Webtoon’s MAU in the country, including those of eBookJapan, reaches nearly 20 million.

“In the end, interesting content is key to competition,” said LINE Digital Frontier CEO Kim Shin-bae. “We’d like to play a role in the Japanese digital cartoon market’s growth by continuously discovering talented local creators.”

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.