Kakao Piccoma revealed the second quarter performance and future plans of Piccoma, a global comics and novel platform.
The gross merchandise value (GMW) of piccoma, a global comics platform operated by Kakao Piccoma, exceeded 23.2 billion yen (¥23,272,713,554) in the second quarter of this year. Piccoma’s transaction amount has been growing every quarter since its launch in Japan in April 2016, and this is all the more meaningful because it is a performance recorded by a single brand.
Previously, Kakao Piccoma attracted attention as it was announced through the Kakao 2022 2nd quarter performance announcement conference call held on the 4th of this month that the number of monthly users this quarter exceeded 9.5 million and the monthly transaction volume exceeded 8 billion yen, the highest ever. .
One of the factors contributing to Piccoma’s continued growth is that it provides the market with services and viewing environments that fit the changing trends through thorough market and user analysis. At the time of its launch in Japan, Piccoma optimized various genres and popular comics in the form of books provided by leading Japanese publishers for the smartphone environment, creating an appreciation environment where comics fans can enjoy comics anytime, anywhere. At the same time, it aims to be a comics platform that ‘snack culture content users’ can also use by servicing global webtoons from Korea, Japan, China, and the United States.
In addition, it boldly introduced business models such as episode-centered ‘episode segmentation’ and ‘wait and it’s free’ that did not exist in Japan at the time of launch, settled them in the Japanese market, and operated the platform in Piccoma’s own way. Accordingly, it has maintained its position as the world’s No. 1 comics platform since 2020. In this process, we have established partnerships based on trust with global partners who provide works to Piccoma, and at the same time, many Japanese platforms are currently leading the market by adopting Piccoma’s strategies and operating methods.
Kakao Piccoma is steadily expanding opportunities for users to encounter comics, webtoons, and novels through various channels. The number of web users has more than doubled thanks to improvements in the user environment, such as improving the readability and convenience of web services as well as app-based services optimized for the mobile environment.
Kakao Piccoma said, “Within the Japanese digital comics industry, the web-based market is known to be twice as large as the app-based market,” and “growth in the web market is also expected.”
Kakao Piccoma plans to focus on growth this year by upgrading the Piccoma service and content library, focusing on Japan and France. Through this, we plan to solidify our position as the world’s number one global comics platform.
For this purpose, the ‘Channel’ tab was introduced in the Japanese Piccoma app. The ‘Channel’ is a space provided so that published comics published by labels affiliated with comics publishers that provide works to Piccoma can be posted directly on the Piccoma platform. It is expected to provide a reduction in the time and resources required for comic book publishers to build and operate their own mobile platforms, and to also have a marketing effect by introducing the works selected by the publisher directly to users. Users can view comics on various topics and stories published by each publisher in real time on Piccoma, broadening their appreciation. The ‘Channel’ tab participating labels and applicable genres will gradually expand.
Kakao Piccoma’s European subsidiary, ‘Piccoma Europe’, introduced Piccoma through an Android app in France in March of this year. Since then, it has been sequentially introduced to iOS and the web, and is growing steadily. In July of this year, as the first main sponsor of ‘Japan Expo’, France’s largest cultural event, which celebrated its 20th anniversary this year, it began full-fledged activities by building awareness and forming a consensus among local users and industry stakeholders.
Meanwhile, while attention is being paid to the future growth potential of Kakao Pickoma, which is taking a leap forward for sustainable growth, Kakao Pickcoma connects works and users through digital technology to provide users with the emotion and joy of enjoying content, contributing to the global comics industry. The policy is to contribute to development.
Source: Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom
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