Kakao Piccoma Achieves 25 Consecutive Quarters of Growth... IPO Likely Postponed to Next Year

Q2 Webtoon Transaction Amount Approximately 226 Billion KRW
Global Growth Centered on Japan and France

[Asia Economy Reporter Yuri Choi] Kakao Piccoma soared again in the second quarter of this year, continuing its growth streak for 25 consecutive quarters. By solidifying its presence in the Japanese and French markets, it is raising its value as a global webtoon platform. However, there are forecasts that the initial public offering (IPO) planned for this year will be postponed to next year or later due to worsening market conditions.

According to industry sources on the 27th, the global webtoon platform Piccoma operated by Kakao Piccoma recorded transaction amounts exceeding 23.2 billion yen (approximately 226 billion KRW) in the second quarter of this year. This amount reflects payments made by users within the Piccoma app. Piccoma’s transaction volume has shown growth every quarter since its initial launch in Japan in April 2016.

Earlier, on the 4th of this month, during Kakao’s 2022 second-quarter earnings conference call, Kakao Piccoma announced that Piccoma surpassed 9.5 million monthly active readers and achieved a record-high monthly transaction amount exceeding 8 billion yen (approximately 7.8 billion KRW) this quarter.

The growth was driven by providing services and viewing environments aligned with changing trends based on thorough market and user analysis.

At the time of its launch in Japan, Piccoma optimized popular manga genres and titles provided by leading Japanese publishers for smartphone environments. It also introduced business models that were previously non-existent in Japan, such as episode-based “chapter segmentation” and “wait and read for free,” establishing itself firmly in the Japanese market and operating the platform in its own unique way.

Kakao Piccoma plans to focus on growth primarily in Japan and France this year. Through this, it aims to solidify its position as the world’s number one global webtoon platform.

To this end, the ‘Channel’ tab was introduced in the Japanese Piccoma app. ‘Channel’ is a space where manga publishers’ labels that provide works to Piccoma can directly post their published manga works on the Piccoma platform. This offers manga publishers the benefit of reducing the time and resources required to build and operate their own mobile platforms, while also providing marketing effects by directly introducing selected works to users. Users can meet a variety of published manga with diverse themes and stories from each publisher in real time on Piccoma.

Based on its growth, the IPO originally planned for the end of this year is likely to be postponed to next year. Given its solid performance, it is expected to proceed when market conditions improve.

According to foreign media such as Bloomberg, the valuation Kakao Piccoma is targeting is over 6 billion USD (approximately 8 trillion KRW). This is similar to the valuation of 847 billion yen (approximately 8.2 trillion KRW) when Kakao Piccoma raised investment funds last year.

However, amid this year’s interest rate hikes and liquidity tightening in various countries, it is expected to be difficult for Kakao Piccoma to receive the desired valuation. Since it is steadily generating profits, it is anticipated to patiently enter the IPO market.

Kakao Piccoma is owned 72.9% by Kakao and 18.2% by Kakao Entertainment. In March, it officially launched Piccoma services in France.