Naver Webtoon Establishes European Headquarters... Secures Key Business Bases in North America, Japan, and More

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Naver Webtoon is establishing a European headquarters corporation to solidify its position as the number one in the European market.

Naver Webtoon announced on the 21st that it plans to accelerate its entry into the European market by establishing a European headquarters corporation, tentatively named 'WebtoonEU,' in France within the first half of this year, adding a global business base.

With the establishment of the European headquarters corporation, Naver Webtoon will secure business bases in all major markets, including Korea, Japan, and Europe, centered on its North American headquarters. Naver Webtoon had already launched French and Spanish services for its global platform 'WEBTOON' in 2019 and added a German service in 2021 to target the European market.

According to mobile data and analytics platform data.ai (formerly App Annie), as of February this year, the French-language service of 'WEBTOON' ranks first in monthly active users (MAU) and revenue among webtoon and comic apps on Google Play and the Apple App Store in France. The German-language service also ranks first in both monthly active users and revenue among webtoon and comic apps in the two major local app markets.

After establishing the European headquarters corporation, Naver Webtoon plans to further expand the number of serialized works and strengthen the discovery of local creators to accelerate the construction of the webtoon ecosystem.

First, about 200 works will be added to the French platform and about 100 to the German platform this year to strengthen the content lineup. In addition to works by local artists, verified popular Korean webtoons and works that have gained popularity in other global service regions such as the United States and Japan will be added to broaden genre diversity.

In July, the third webtoon contest will be held in France. The second webtoon contest held in July last year attracted over 1,200 applicants, proving the growing interest of local creators in webtoons. In Germany, the 'Canvas' system, a gateway for local creators, will be launched in the second half of this year to start discovering local creators. In addition, efforts to strengthen business competitiveness, such as securing local personnel and reinforcing publisher networks, will also be carried out.

Kim Jun-gu, CEO of Naver Webtoon, said, "The digital comics market in Europe is a high-potential market with rapidly increasing users," adding, "We expect to implement a more localized strategy through the establishment of the European corporation, and based on the know-how of the world's number one webtoon platform, we will build a creator ecosystem and further expand the European market."