Bo-eun leads the digital content team. She has covered foreign affairs, North Korea, tech, economy and gender issues at The Korea Times. She did a short stint at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, where she obtained a new perspective on news production and life. Small sources of joy for her are lounging in the sun, having a good latte and swimming.
Naver's US webtoon CEO recognized by Variety magazine
By Kim Bo-eun
Webtoon Entertainment CEO Ken Kim / Courtesy of Naver
By Kim Bo-eun
The chief of Naver's global webtoon platform's U.S. arm was recognized by Variety magazine as a “key player in the intersection of technology and creativity.”
Webtoon Entertainment CEO Ken Kim was included in the list of 37 figures in the U.S. entertainment publication's first "Silicon Valleywood Impact Report" released last week. Korea's No. 1 internet portal launched Webtoon in 2004 and the service entered the U.S. in 2014.
Variety characterizes figures in the report as "leaders overseeing the entertainment industry's transition to the digital world, focusing on streaming and direct-to-consumer content delivery, as they disrupt the worlds of production, distribution and exhibition, while also devising new methods of revenue generation, ranging from targeted advertising to new subscription models." The selected figures were with companies in the film, TV, music and games sectors.
"Kim works at the frontier of the anyone-can-be-a-digital-artist movement," Variety stated in the report. Kim joined Naver in 2002, and has headed the company's webtoon business here and overseas.
Webtoon publishes digital comics from both professional and amateur creators. The U.S. service has grown to have 10 million monthly users and its global users exceed 72 million.
"The younger generation are natural-born creators," the Los Angeles-based Kim was cited as saying by Variety. “Everyone has their stories.”
Naver is scaling up its webtoon businesses, announcing earlier this year its plan to acquire the Canadian social storytelling platform, Wattpad, as part of such efforts. Wattpad is the world's largest platform for writers and readers, with more than 90 million users.
The other Korean figure on the list was Samsung Electronics' Vice President of Product and Marketing Sang Kim. Kim led the launch of all product initiatives for Samsung's Tizen TV platform, including the Universal Guide and the streaming apps, Samsung TV Plus and Samsung Health.
The list also included Google's Head of Industry, Media & Entertainment Angie Barrick, Twitter's Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President and Head of Game Creator Experience and Ecosystem Sarah Bond and Tiktok's President of Global Business Solutions Blake Chandless.