Top 1 and 2 Consumer Spending Apps
'Japan-Optimized' Kakao Piccoma
25 Consecutive Quarters of Growth
Line Manga Also Shows Steep Growth
[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Kakao and Naver have conquered Japan, the world's largest comics market. They have firmly established their presence in the Japanese online comics platform market by actively targeting the Japanese market, where a generational shift from paper comics to digital comics on smartphone screens has begun.
Piccoma and LINE Manga Rank 1st and 2nd in Consumer Spending in Japan
According to a report by mobile market research firm Data.ai on the 14th, Kakao Piccoma's "Piccoma" and Naver Webtoon affiliate's "LINE Manga" ranked first and second respectively in consumer spending on applications (apps) in Japan in the second quarter of this year.
Since its launch in April 2016, Piccoma has maintained continuous growth for 25 consecutive quarters. In the second quarter, the monthly active users exceeded 9.5 million, and the monthly transaction amount surpassed a record high of 8 billion yen (approximately 77 billion KRW).
The growth factor of Piccoma is attributed to optimization for the Japanese environment. When Kakao Piccoma entered the Japanese market, it optimized popular comics provided by leading Japanese publishers in book form for the smartphone environment. By enhancing the readability and convenience of the web service, the number of web users has steadily increased. Piccoma proved its growth by ranking first among apps with the highest increase in consumer spending in Japan in the second quarter compared to the first quarter.
The growth of LINE Manga, a subsidiary of LINE Digital Frontier under Naver Webtoon's Japanese branch, is also steep. LINE Manga acquired eBookJapan, a web platform for comics and various e-books, in March this year, and in August, the combined transaction amount of the services exceeded 10 billion yen (approximately 9.6 billion KRW), setting a record high.
K-Webtoons Expanding Globally
Kakao Piccoma, which has officially started targeting the North American and European markets this year, is playing a leading role in promoting K-Webtoons worldwide. Piccoma ranked 7th globally in consumer spending in the second quarter. This is a one-rank increase compared to the fourth quarter of last year, influenced by its launch of Android apps in France in March, followed by iOS apps and web services, targeting the European market.
Kakao Piccoma plans to focus on growth by enhancing Piccoma services and content libraries mainly in Japan and France this year. To this end, it introduced a "Channel" tab in the Japanese Piccoma mobile app. The Channel is a space where labels belonging to comic publishers providing works to Piccoma can directly post their published comic works on the Piccoma platform.
Naver Webtoon has established itself as a gateway for webtoon creators worldwide. In 2022, Naver Webtoon's "Lore Olympus" and "Everything is Fine" were nominated for the Digital Book of the Year category at the US Harvey Awards. Among the five works nominated for the Digital Book of the Year category this year, two are original works serialized on Naver Webtoon's English service "Webtoon."
The two nominated works are by creators from Naver Webtoon's "Canvas." Canvas is an amateur creative space platform that applies the industry's first creative comics board "Challenge Comics," built by Naver Webtoon, to the global market, fostering a global webtoon ecosystem.
In China, the Chinese movie "Moon You - Dokhaeng Wolgu," based on Naver Webtoon's "Moon You," ranked second at the box office. The movie was first released in China on July 29. On its opening day, it earned approximately 58.074 billion KRW, ranking first at the box office. The original "Moon You" is a work by artist Jo Seok, translated into English and Chinese in 2016, and received a high rating in the high 9s out of 10 points.
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