Naver, Kakao find success with online comics in manga powerhouse Japan

Seen is a cover image of the Korean version of the online comic "Teenage Mercenary," left, and the cover of the Japanese version on the right side. Courtesy of Naver Webtoon

Naver and Kakao are achieving big success in Japan, the home of “manga” or comics, with their online comics generating huge sales there last year, according to the companies, Sunday.

The two internet companies said they are receiving favorable responses in the Japanese comics market by localizing content using popular intellectual properties (IPs) from Korea.

Naver Webtoon, an online comics subsidiary of Naver, said sales in Japan exceeded 100 billion yen ($675 million) from January to November of 2023. It also said that as of last December, Line Manga, its Japanese service platform, was the only comic app there with over 10 million monthly active users (MAUs), maintaining the top spot.

On the success in the overseas market, Naver Webtoon said its cross-border strategy of translating and sharing content from one region to another is paying off handsomely.

"More than 50 percent of Naver Webtoon's content is being read by people overseas," a spokesperson for Naver Webtoon said. "Through our cross-border platform strategy, not only can Japanese readers enjoy a variety of works from Naver Webtoon, but readers worldwide can also meet original works from Japan."

Thanks to that strategy, Naver Webtoon has over 40 online comics with over 1 billion views globally and 108 titles with over 500 million views as of 2022.

One of the reasons for Naver Webtoon's huge success in the Japanese market was the popularity in Japan of the online comic "Teenage Mercenary," which is very popular in Korea, the company added. The online comic exceeded annual sales of 1 billion yen in Japan last year.

"When I started serializing it in Korea three years ago, I had no idea it would grow into a global hit with 1.3 billion views so quickly,” YC, the author of Teenage Mercenary, said.

"Thanks to Line Manga, which boasts the largest user base in Japan, many readers and contents have been able to strike a chord in Japan, the country of comics," the author added.

Naver Webtoon also shows strong dominance in North America, Europe and Southeast Asia. In North America, its market share is close to 70 percent as it has secured a strong IP chain ranging from web novels and online comics to videos through Wattpad, its web novel platform subsidiary, and Wattpad WEBTOON Studios, a video production company.

On the left is a Korean version of Kakao Entertainment’s online comics "Doctor Elise" while on the right is the Japanese version. Courtesy of Kakao Entertainment

Kakao Webtoon, an online comics service subsidiary of Kakao Entertainment, also announced that their Japanese platform, Piccoma, exceeded sales of 100 billion yen in Japan last year, as popular works in Korea received good responses in Japan. This size is the highest since the service was launched in April 2016.

"Last year's sales volume increased more than seven times compared to 2019 before the pandemic," the company said. "The strategy of providing not only Japanese comics in e-book format, but also online comics produced in Korea and China, tailored to local reader preferences, worked well.”

In particular, the online comic "Doctor Elise" became popular in Japan based on its popularity in Korea, and thanks to its success in both countries, it is being produced as a collaborative animation between Korea and Japan and is currently being aired in Japan.

According to mobile data research institute DATA.AI, Naver and Kakao are currently competing for first and second place in the Japanese online comics market, maintaining around 100 million MAU.