Naver Webtoon Soars with Marvel and DC Comics, Boosting IP Competitiveness UP↑

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Naver Webtoon is enhancing its intellectual property (IP) competitiveness by successfully collaborating with major companies such as Marvel Comics and DC Comics. The strategy is to solidify its position as the number one player in the domestic and international webtoon markets through partnerships with these companies that possess super IPs. Competition with Kakao Webtoon, which has been rapidly rising recently, is also expected to intensify.

◆ Secured both Marvel and DC Comics = According to Naver Webtoon on the 3rd, it recently announced plans for a ‘Super Casting’ project that produces original webtoon or web novel content using external super IPs through collaborations with entertainment companies. The first partner in this collaboration is DC Comics.

Alongside Marvel Comics, DC Comics is considered one of the two major pillars of the American comic market and owns many famous characters such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern. Naver Webtoon plans to offer original webtoons utilizing DC Comics’ universe and characters. This includes not only reformatting existing works into webtoon style but also forming new creative teams to produce new webtoon titles.

The background to this collaboration appears to be largely influenced by Naver Webtoon’s global capabilities. The global webtoon and web novel platform Wattpad, acquired by Naver Webtoon, had 94 million monthly active users (MAU) as of last year. Combined with Naver Webtoon, the MAU expands to 167 million. For DC Comics, this provides an opportunity to easily offer its IP to readers worldwide.

With this collaboration with DC Comics, Naver Webtoon now holds both major American comic IPs. Since this year, Naver Webtoon has been working with Sigongsa, the official Marvel publisher in Korea, to launch the ‘Marvel Webtoon Project.’ This project is the world’s first title that adapts Marvel Comics’ print comics into vertical scroll webtoons optimized for mobile environments.

The first series, the webtoon ‘Black Widow,’ was released in July, and on the 1st of this month, the second series, the webtoon ‘Shang-Chi,’ began exclusive serialization. The original comics for the upcoming movies ‘Eternals’ and ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home,’ scheduled to be released in November and December respectively, will also be presented as webtoons.

◆ Competition for IP acquisition intensifies = From the perspective of Kakao Webtoon, which is watching the collaboration between Naver Webtoon and the two major comic companies, the situation must be frustrating. Although Kakao Page, another content platform under Kakao, serializes some DC Comics works, Kakao Webtoon, which focuses primarily on webtoons, has yet to show any significant signs of collaboration.

However, Kakao Webtoon’s recent growth is formidable enough to cover this situation. After officially launching its service in Korea on the 1st of last month, it achieved a transaction volume of 1 billion KRW within just two days, marking a successful start, and secured top rankings in both major app markets, Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Notably, it ranked 2nd overall and in the entertainment category on the Apple App Store, just behind TikTok, reaching the top among webtoon platforms.

This is a critical moment where Naver Webtoon, which has maintained the number one position in the domestic webtoon market, must be on alert and intensify its efforts to secure IPs. Both companies have expressed active investment intentions to acquire high-quality IPs, suggesting that the competition to dominate the webtoon market will become even fiercer. A Naver Webtoon official stated, "Going forward, through Naver’s IP value chain that connects web novels, webtoons, and video content, the hottest content in the global entertainment sector will emerge."

Kakao Entertainment, the operator of Kakao Webtoon, also said, "We have invested 1.5 trillion KRW in IP development and hold the largest number of 8,500 original IPs in Korea. These IPs will expand globally and across all languages, and we plan to accelerate efforts this year to extend Kakao Entertainment’s global influence."