This file photo, taken June 29, 2021, shows an ad poster of BTS at a Lotte Duty Free store in central Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Aug. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — The webcomic arm of South Korea’s top portal operator, Naver Corp., said Wednesday it will expand cooperation with the agency of K-pop sensation BTS and other companies to create new original content.
Webtoon Entertainment said it will create various locally made webcomics and other kinds of intellectual property (IP) content based on BTS and other K-pop artists under their management company, Hybe Co.
“We aim to expand and grow our storytelling content into the core of the entertainment industry through cooperation with global content firms,” CEO Kim Jun-koo said during an online press conference.
Kim also said the company will focus on digital comics, which are increasingly being adapted into films and TV shows by global video streaming services, such as Netflix.
Other partnering firms include U.S. comics giant DC Entertainment to create various contents based on the firm’s universe and characters, the company said.
Kim also highlighted that Naver WEBTOON operates open platforms, such as CANVAS, where anyone can participate as amateur creators and freely publish their stories.
Naver launched Webtoon in 2004 and expanded the platform globally in 2014. Naver established Wattpad Webtoon Studios by merging Naver Webtoon Studio and Wattpad Studio, the biggest global web novel platform, which Naver acquired in May.
The combined monthly average users of the two platforms exceeds 167 million. More than 6 million creators are registered with the platforms.
The highest annual income a WEBTOON creator has made was US$10.6 million (12.4 billion won) last year. The average revenue of all WEBTOON original creators was about $238,000.
(Yonhap)
