To Get a Bigger Share of World's Largest Content Market

Naver and Kakao are competing with each other to get a bigger share of the North American entertainment content market.

Naver and Kakao are competing with each other in the North American entertainment content market, the largest of its kind in the world.

Kakao Entertainment recently acquired Wuxiaworld for 45 billion won via Radish Media. The annual sales of the English web novel service have grown over 40 percent for years and more than 85 percent of its sales are generated from regular subscription.

Earlier, Kakao Entertainment acquired webtoon platform Tapas and web novel platform Radish for 1.1 trillion won in May this year. Kakao Entertainment is aiming to triple its business in the industry within three years.

Naver webtoons are currently available in 10 languages and the number of its customers in North America recently broke the 14 million mark. In the first half of this year, Naver acquired Wattpad, the largest web novel platform in the world. At present, more than 166 million fans visit the Naver Webtoon platform each month and over 5.7 million creators are doing their activities on it.

Naver also formed CANVAS in North America as a platform of amateur creators. In June, it launched Wattpad Webtoon Studio. It is expected to create video content based on its webtoons together with ViacomCBS International Studio and the content is expected to be distributed in North America via Paramount+ and other OTT platforms.
 

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