SEOUL, Jan. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — Naver Corp., South Korea’s top internet portal operator, is witnessing a growth in its webcomic business, which will eventually improve its earnings, industry sources said Friday. Naver Webtoon, more commonly known as Line Webtoon in the United States, is home to a plethora of creator-owned content, ranging from romance [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — The webcomic arm of South Korea’s top portal operator, Naver Corp., said Monday that it has kicked off service in French and Spanish as part of ongoing efforts to reach foreign audiences. Line Webtoon, a global service provided by Naver Webtoon Corp., added two languages in Europe, in addition [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Brazil, known as South America’s gateway to the Korean Wave, hosted an exclusive event to promote Korean webtoons. The Korean Cultural Center in São Paulo held a Webtoon Night Exhibition on Monday. Famous webtoon artists including Kwon Hyuk-joo and Song Rae-hyun were present at the opening ceremony, giving an [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Webtoons are evolving as they expand their market reach mobile games and dramas. Recently, mobile games and dramas using Naver Webtoon IP are gaining popularity. Thanks to the popularity and recent trends, it is estimated that the size of South Korea’s webtoon market will surpass US$1 billion by 2020. [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — For South Korean filmmakers and drama studios, webtoons, or web-based comics, have been one of the most bankable sources for the past decade thanks to their fresh subjects and solid plots. Now, the theatrical scene is also turning their eyes on the tried-and-true content. Published online in 2016, the [...]
SEOUL, Jun. 28 (Korea Bizwire) — Samsung Electronics Co.’s Device Solution Division plans to publish a webtoon series to raise public awareness about semiconductors. Samsung introduced NANO, a new webtoon series on semiconductors, on its official website on Thursday. “We hope to bring semiconductors to the public as easily approachable devices,” said the company. “The [...]
SEOUL, May 27 (Korea Bizwire) — With changing trends, the South Korean public no longer has to be feel objection to ballet as a luxurious Western art. Recently, ballet has been reborn into colorful variation within the mass media and the public no longer feels a psychological distance to the art of ballet. There are [...]
SEOUL, Dec. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — Television series based on webtoons are all the rage these days as TV networks battle to attract young viewers. KBS 2TV’s “Feel Good to Die”, tvN’s “Tale of Gyeryong Fairy”, JTBC’s “Clean with Passion for Now”, and Olive’s “Eun Joo’s Room” are all based on webtoons. JTBC’s “My ID [...]
SEOUL, Jul. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea’s top mobile messenger, KakaoTalk, has joined forces with major talent agency YG Entertainment Inc. to tap deeper into the online comic market in Japan, industry sources said Monday. Although the two firms have not signed official tie-up deals, the collaboration is drawing [...]
SEOUL, March 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean webtoon makers are being hit hard by illegal copies, suffering economic damages of over 200 billion won every month. The worrying figure comes from a report from Webtoon Guide citing one website known for sharing illegal copies of South Korean webtoon series, which was submitted to the [...]