Naver Expands Webtoon Global Business Centered on US Corporation

US Corporation 'Webtoon Entertainment' to Oversee Webtoon Business

[Asia Economy Reporter Jin-gyu Lee] Naver announced on the 28th that it will accelerate the expansion of its webtoon business by promoting its global webtoon operations centered on its U.S. corporation.

Naver plans to restructure its webtoon business, which currently operates in three countries: Korea's 'Naver Webtoon,' the U.S.'s 'Webtoon Entertainment,' and Japan's 'Line Digital Frontier,' so that the U.S. corporation will oversee the entire webtoon business. This strategy aims to expand the business from the U.S. market base to regions where webtoons have not yet fully entered, such as Europe and South America.

To this end, Webtoon Entertainment will acquire all shares held by Line, the parent company of Line Digital Frontier, through a non-cash contribution, and issue new shares to Line.

Naver stated, "We will establish the U.S. as a base region and actively pursue intellectual property (IP) business with the world's most powerful entertainment companies," adding, "We plan to focus on revitalizing domestic and international webtoon IPs and expanding the global webtoon market base."

They continued, "The domestic webtoon organization will continue advanced technology research and service experiments in the entertainment field as the origin country of webtoons, as well as support more diverse domestic webtoon artists to be active globally."

Meanwhile, Naver Webtoon is recognized as the top webtoon platform not only in Korea but also in Asia and the North American markets, surpassing 62 million monthly active users (MAU) globally.