Naver's Webtoon Arm Jumps 81% On Disney Deal To Bring Marvel And Star Wars To Digital Comics
Shares of Webtoon Entertainment, the digital comics company controlled by South Korean internet giant Naver, on Wednesday surged 81% in its biggest one-day gain since its Nasdaq debut last year after announcing a partnership with Walt Disney.
Webtoon Entertainment, which popularized the vertically scrolling digital comics designed for mobile, said it will publish about 100 reformatted comics from the U.S. entertainment behemoth's properties on its English-language app. These properties include Disney, Marvel, 20th Century Studios and Star Wars, with the initial launches including comics from Spider-Man and the Avengers. The partnership also involves the two companies producing original webcomics, according to Webtoon Entertainment.
'We're thrilled to kick off this collaboration with iconic series from their comic book catalog – and this is just the start,' said Kim Yongsoo, chief strategy officer and head of global at Webtoon Entertainment, in a statement. 'Together, we're bringing this legendary storytelling to a new generation of mobile-native comic fans, while giving existing fans a new way to experience series and characters they love.'
Webtoon Entertainment's shares closed at $16.96 on Wednesday, though it's still below its initial public offering price of $21. The Los Angeles-based company went public on the Nasdaq in a $315 million IPO in June last year. Its stock price has since then tumbled due to previous disappointing earnings.
Webtoon Entertainment's roots date back to 2005, when Naver launched a platform for serialized digital comics in a vertical-scroll format, known as webtoons. Following the launch of a mobile app version in the 2010s, webtoons' popularity grew as smartphones became widely adopted. Their prominence rose further during the pandemic, with the global success of K-pop and K-dramas helping the digital comics expand beyond Korea.
In the quarter ended June, Webtoon Entertainment had 156 million global monthly active users, with 71% of them consuming online comics in languages other than Korean and Japanese. The company posted an 8.5% rise in revenue to $348 million in the three months ended June, with 51% of sales coming from Japan, followed by Korea and then the rest of the world. Its net loss narrowed by 95% to $3.9 million during the same period. Webtoon Entertainment attributed the financial growth to an increased revenue from paid content, advertising and intellectual property adaptations.
Korean webtoon companies, however, are facing challenges from declining reader engagement and piracy. To make up for the loss, Webtoon Entertainment said it's launching a short-form video platform that turns webtoons into bite-sized clips. Meanwhile, Kakao, a Naver rival, has also rolled out a platform that uses AI to generate short-form videos based on webtoons. Over the past year, Kakao's webtoon business has withdrawn from markets including mainland China, Taiwan, Indonesia and Europe. MORE FROM FORBES Forbes Naver-Backed Motion Capture Startup Movin Expands Into AI Training Datasets For Humanoid Robots By John Kang Forbes Former Naver Research Scientist Launches AI Startup, Aims To Be The OpenAI Of Korea By John Kang Forbes Billionaire Jean Salata's EQT Asia To Invest In Korean LinkedIn Rival By Zinnia Lee
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