It was recently announced that Kakao Entertainment, known for distributing web cartoons or “webtoons,” decided to spend 1 trillion won ($889 million USD) to acquire more resources from overseas and expand. They are predicted to potentially acquire management rights of Radish, an online fiction story app similar to Wattpad, and Tapas Media Inc., a U.S. webtoon site.
Needless to say, Kakao Entertainment has teased the idea of going global and riding the rising Hallyu Wave. Thanks to the growing popularity of K-pop and other forms of entertainment such as film and television, webtoons have also made a place for themselves in the U.S. market.
Kakao Page, specifically, sets itself apart from the likes of its competitors by giving readers the option to either purchase chapters of a webtoon as soon as they are released or wait a few days after publication to read for free. After merging with the talent agency, Kakao M, they as a whole became Kakao Entertainment to encompass multiple forms of entertainment.
With the continuous rise in popularity of Korean dramas, many fans have also been exposed to webtoons as many of their favorite shows are actually based on popular webtoons from South Korea. One of the most recent fan favorites has been “True Beauty,” starring powerhouse actors Moon Ga-Young, Cha Eun-woo and Hwang In-yeop. The plotline was directly derived from the webtoon of the same name, which already garnered international recognition from young readers all over the world. “Itaewon Class” is another prime example of an immensely popular Korean drama based off a webtoon of the same name. Even V from global sensation group, BTS, has given a shout-out to “Itaewon Class,” saying he enjoyed reading the webtoon very much and related to the main protagonist of the story.
The success of dramas and movies based off of webtoons has encouraged both the entertainment and publishing industries to continue expanding into different, especially into the U.S. According to Statista data from 2020, 19.3% of respondents have confirmed that webtoons are widely popular with the general public and 29.5% of respondents have answered that webtoons are just widely known to the general public.
With Kakao Entertainment planning to set foot into the U.S. market by establishing a headquarters in New York City, many can expect new and exciting content that goes beyond the current webtoon ecosystem.
Julie Kim
Asia Journal
