Chorokbaem Media Invests in Webtoon Platform: "Strengthening IP Acquisition, NFT Business Synergy"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] Chorokbaem Media has made a strategic investment in a webtoon platform company, expanding its content IP domain to webtoons and web novels.

This investment aims to diversify IP acquisition channels and is expected to create synergy with the expansion of IP-based NFT (Non-Fungible Token), metaverse, and e-commerce business areas, which are being promoted with the recently launched ‘Creator Alliance’ consisting of nine media production companies, as well as strategic partners such as Lotte Home Shopping, Bithumb, Bident, and Wemade, in which equity investments were recently made.

Chorokbaem Media announced on the 30th through a public disclosure that it has completed the acquisition of convertible bonds (CB) worth 6 billion KRW in ‘Top Media’ (formerly ‘DMT’ before the company name change). Top Media is a subsidiary of ‘Topco’, which operates the well-known premium domestic webtoon platform ‘TopToon’. Top Media plays a key role in the global platform business for webtoons and web novels.

Top Media operates ‘TopToon Plus’ targeting English-speaking countries and distributes content through TopToon’s Taiwan platform and major Japanese platforms. In the future, it plans to provide various content services including Chinese and Spanish versions of TopToon. Top Media currently has 50 million subscribers domestically and internationally. It is rapidly expanding its overseas presence through a global localization strategy.

Chorokbaem Media plans to secure various IPs based on webtoons and web novels through close collaboration with ‘Topco’ and ‘Top Media’ and utilize them for drama production. In addition, it will actively develop and invest in licensing businesses for webtoons and web novels based on original drama works.

A representative from Chorokbaem Media said, “Webtoons and web novels have great potential for expansion into other areas and many successful cases exist, so content producers are making massive investments to secure IP. Through this investment, Chorokbaem Media has become capable of acquiring IP based on webtoons and web novels, and we will maximize the profitability of content through an OSMU (One Source Multi Use) strategy based on these IPs.”

He added, “Chorokbaem Media will continue active investments to secure various IPs beyond webtoons and web novels. Through this, we will expand our business areas into metaverse, NFT, e-commerce, and more based on IP in the future.”

On the 10th, Chorokbaem Media acquired ‘Hook Entertainment’, one of the leading domestic management companies, and incorporated it as a subsidiary. Chorokbaem Media plans to strengthen its business portfolio by building various revenue models based on the IP of artists from Hook Entertainment.