Korea's No. 1 Content Provider
NH Investment & Securities have released a favorable research report on D&C Media, Korea's No. 1 content provider.
The brokerage said D&C Media holds webnovel and webtoon IPs that can easily be adapted to other content genres. It expects interest in leading content providers to heighten going forward, given their broad online and mobile reader bases and content buyers’ need to minimize the increasing cost burden associated with writers.
The report says webtoon and webnovel IPs have recently emerged as the focal point in the Korean content industry. Amid increasing payments to writers (particularly for dramas), content platform players are seeking to reduce risk by investing in verified material from content providers.
The report notes that: 1) writing is one of the most expressive and effective ways to expand the horizon of human imagination; 2) web literature backed by an established reader base and boasting extensive volume is relatively easy to transform into other content genres; and 3) in the cross-media era, utilizing IP for adaptation into other forms of content (dramas, games, etc) enhances the value of the original IP (webnovels, webtoons, etc), leading to amplified synergies.
According to the report, webnovels have the following characteristics: 1) they are easy-to-read content with one-person media aspects; and 2) unlike traditional literature, they allow creators to freely reveal their personalities without being tied to a specific form.
As creator managers and content distributors, content producers are expected to grow and become more influential going forward. The brokerage forecasts that the enterprise value of D&C Media to increase, in line with the ongoing effort to commercialize IP, and backed by its solid base of webnovel writers.