[Interview] "No Daylight Saving Time in Korea, I Had Some Trouble in France"

Heo Jun, Head of Platform Development Team at Kakao Piccoma Global Development Group
Localized Kakao's successful methods like segmented sales and wait-to-read, similar to single-volume webtoons
Ranked 2nd in the French webtoon market, leading hits like 'Solo Leveling'

Heo Jun, Head of Platform Development Team, Kakao Piccoma Global Development Group [Photo by Kakao Piccoma]

There were many trial and error experiences due to significant differences in language, time zones, currency units, as well as cultural and social differences. The most surprising point was that, unlike in Korea, there is daylight saving time. We built the system without any preparation and had to hurriedly rebuild it, which still makes me sweat just thinking about it.

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Yuri] A developer who had never been to Europe before jumped into the proud French comic market. Mainly responsible for business-to-business (B2B) services, it was also their first time developing a platform for general users. Their experience of ranking first in Japan, the home country of comics, and their passion for webtoons were the weapons for this seemingly reckless challenge. This is the story of Heo Jun, head of the platform development team at Kakao Piccoma Global Development Group, who launched the webtoon platform 'Piccoma' in France.

Kakao Piccoma is Kakao's Japanese subsidiary. Starting with Piccoma in Japan in 2016, it quickly rose to the top of the local app market sales. After Japan, the next target was France. Europe is the second largest market after Asia-Pacific in the global digital comics market and is the most promising market in terms of growth. Heo joined Kakao Piccoma right after the European subsidiary 'Piccoma Europe' was established in September last year.

Heo said, "Based on the confidence gained from ranking first in Japan, we segmented Japanese manga volumes into episodes and sold them in France, and introduced Korean, Chinese, and Japanese webtoons. We adopted Piccoma's successful formula such as 'Wait and Watch for Free,' which offers works for free at regular intervals. Webtoons gained popularity as 'snack content' that can be easily enjoyed on smartphones locally, resulting in better-than-expected outcomes."

Although cultural and social backgrounds differ, works that were popular domestically also gained popularity in France. The time and patterns of webtoon consumption were similar. The situation was not much different from when Korean webtoons were introduced to Japan. Heo explained, "Since users' content consumption behaviors were similar, we concluded to transfer the Piccoma service as is. Our goal was to broaden the experience of enjoying comics in a digital environment."

The biggest difficulty right after entering France was 'daylight saving time.' In France, daylight saving time starts in March when days get longer, moving the clock one hour ahead of standard time. Piccoma, which opened on March 17 this year, encountered daylight saving time just ten days later on the 27th. Although we hurriedly responded and revamped the system, there was a risk of service malfunctions such as issues with the webtoon upload system and settlement reference dates right after launch.

France Piccoma Image [Photo by Kakao Piccoma]

The euro, which uses decimal units, was another aspect requiring localization. While the process of users making payments and settlements to publishers is the same as in Japan and Korea, the development side had to handle decimal currency units, which is a completely different system from the neat won or yen.

Heo emphasized, "Global has become a common keyword in the IT industry, but the reality we faced was not easy. Europe is diverse in languages, ethnicities, and cultures, so while maintaining the experience of reading comics digitally, the key was to flexibly localize the parts that directly interact with users."

The day the service was finally launched in the market remains vivid to Heo as if it were yesterday. The moment when the French map on the dashboard lit up one by one as local users increased was an exhilarating experience. He also felt proud when introducing the popular domestic webtoon 'Solo Leveling' and receiving a good response. As hit works accumulated one by one, Piccoma is currently ranked second in the French webtoon market, following Naver Webtoon.

Having successfully taken the first step, Piccoma is now conducting various experiments. Heo said, "At the early stage of entering France, we started the service focusing on popular works, and now we are concentrating on supplying diverse content by providing recommendation services targeting locals and shortening the ranking aggregation cycle. We will strive to build a foundation for Kakao's global services like Piccoma Japan."