Disney Brings Marvel, Star Wars, Alien And Other Fan Favorites To Webtoon

Forbes

3 days ago

Disney (NYSE: DIS) is teaming up with digital storytelling platform Webtoon (NASD: WBTN) to bring some of its biggest stories to the vertically-scrolling mobile comics format favored by today's readers. According to a joint announcement by the two companies, Webtoon will offer titles including The Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers, Star Wars, Alien and Disney As Old as Time: A Twisted Tale on the platform, with more selections and original content coming soon.
Under the deal unveiled today, Webtoon will feature around 100 comics from Marvel, Star Wars, 20th Century Studios (e.g. Alien) and Disney in a new section of the English-language app. Fans can sample a few free episodes, then unlock new chapters using Webtoon coins that are purchased on the site.
Considering the small number of titles at launch, the costs of reformatting legacy content into vertical format at scale, and historical limitations to the size of the digital comics market in North America, it is unlikely this deal will make much tangible difference to either company's bottom line in the near future, but the alliance of two heavyweights occupying different quadrants of the comics and pop culture space does have symbolic and strategic value.
Webtoon gets to add some of the world's most lucrative IP to its existing library of hundreds of thousands of original works that span the gamut from user-generated content to best-sellers like Lore Olympus and Tower of God, potentially helping it broaden its appeal in growth markets outside of northeast Asia. Webtoon reports about 150 million monthly active users worldwide for its serialized, vertically scrolling comics, optimized for quick reading on mobile phones. Its demographics skew younger and more female, with content that leans into fantasy, romance, horror, comedy and slice of life genres. Superheroes have been conspicuous in their absence. One imagines that will change when Marvel shows up in force.
For Disney, the deal represents an opportunity to reach a new generation of digital comics fans on their platform of choice. Marvel Comics, the longtime market-share leader in sales of periodical comics, traditionally sells to older superhero fans who buy physical copies in comic shops or download entire issues on apps like Marvel Unlimited or Amazon's comiXology. So anything that promises to bring those audiences closer together could provide a shot in the arm for a comics publishing business in the grip of some external uncertainties.
'Our collaboration with Webtoon will allow us to expand our beloved franchise universes on a best-in-class digital platform,' said Daniel Fink, SVP, Head of Digital Innovation, Disney Consumer Products, in a prepared statement. 'We look forward to engaging with their dedicated, global user base while welcoming future fans to experience a redefined form of Disney storytelling that will have a lasting impact in the digital comics space.'
According to today's announcement, the two companies will also produce original webcomic series from Disney, Marvel, 20th Century and Star Wars properties, presumably optimized for the format and storytelling style of the Webtoon platform.
'The Disney, Marvel, 20th Century and Star Wars brands are among the most legendary, creative and successful in the industry,' said Yongsoo Kim, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Global Webtoon, quoted in the announcement. 'We're thrilled to kick off this collaboration with iconic series from their comic book catalog – and this is just the start! Together, we're brining this legendary storytelling to a new generation of mobile-native comic fans, while giving existing fans a new way to experience the series and characters they love.'
Earlier this summer, ahead of the Disney partnership announcement, Kim was even more straightforward about Webtoon's ultimate vision for the industry. 'The vertical scroll format revolutionized digital comics,' he wrote in a 'prediction' for the future of digital comics. "Now that same innovation is being applied to traditional comics as publishers digitize and reformat their catalogues for digital distribution. Hard-to-find issues and content will be a thing of the past, as the entire history of comics is digitized. This will open up a new revenue stream to publishers' back catalogues and – even more exciting – introduce a younger, mobile-first audience to the incredible art and storytelling that have defined comics for generations."
Both companies appear open to experimentation to grow the market. Webtoon has collaborated with Marvel in the past on projects like The Eternals: The 500-Year War and a series of webtoon adaptations in South Korea. The company has also partnered with DC Comics, Dark Horse, Archie, IDW and others on various series, including the popular Wayne Family Adventures (DC). Marvel recently announced a digital distribution deal with DSTLRY, a startup founded by Amazon ComiXology veterans, operating on a different revenue model from Webtoon.
The announcement is the latest in a series of moves that Webtoon has undertaken since spinning off from its South Korean parent company Naver in an IPO last summer, to demonstrate continuing momentum in an industry that has contracted from pandemic-era highs. In the past year, the company has leaned hard into its role of generating new IP for media development, its back-end technology, its in-house production studio, and now the value of its vertically-scrolling interface as a new presentation format for legacy comics content.
The Disney partnership announcement accompanied Webtoon's earnings report for Q2 (ending 6/30), which showed the company reporting $348.3M revenue, up 8.5% or 5.5% on a currency adjusted basis, and exceeding the top end of the guidance it gave investors earlier this year. Net losses narrowed to $3.9 million from $76.6 million the prior year, reflecting lower expenses. Shares were up sharply in after-hours trading immediately following the earnings report and the Disney announcement.