Kakao Piccoma’s (CEO Kim Jae-yong) global digital comics platform ‘Piccoma’ was found to be the number one comics app with the most paid usage by consumers around the world in 2021.
According to the ‘2022 Mobile Media and Entertainment Status Report’ released by data and analysis platform data.ai (formerly App Annie) on the 5th of this month, Piccoma is the world’s leading company with high consumer spending in the comics (books and reference materials) app sector. It was found that it has consistently maintained its first place in the top app rankings. Piccoma, which first debuted in Japan in April 2016, ranked first in global comics app sales in July 2020 and has maintained its position to this day.
It is analyzed that Piccoma’s solid growth was largely due to its strategy of ‘providing a new way and enjoyment of enjoying cartoon content’ targeting online and offline cartoon fans and mobile users who did not enjoy cartoons.
Piccoma has created an appreciation environment for comics fans to enjoy the works regardless of time and place by converting various genres and popular comics (manga) in the form of books provided by leading Japanese publishers into digital content. At the same time, through webtoons optimized for mobile devices, potential customers who do not enjoy comics can experience the charm and enjoyment of comics.
For this purpose, △Applying UI/UX for users who enjoy content on mobile devices △Control volume 1 of the comic into ‘episode 1, episode 2…’ according to the episode. Various attempts were made to increase user convenience and accessibility while simultaneously growing together with stakeholders in the industry, such as devising the ‘art segmentation’ method that provides divided content into △introduction of ‘0 yen if you wait’ △author-first management represented by ‘work first’ unfolded. Recently, Piccoma has been receiving great response by providing various channels for users who enjoy content on mobile devices to enjoy comics like snack culture.
In addition, the platform industry in Japan and Europe, where Piccoma provides services, appears to be growing, so Piccoma’s growth is expected to continue. In the same report, it was reported that in 2021, the growth of consumer spending in the comics app sector in Japan recorded 1.7 trillion won, with Japan contributing the most, and the total time spent on comics apps in Europe and the Americas also increased significantly.
France’s Piccoma, which began service in March of this year, is making good progress by providing both Japanese comics (manga), which are highly popular in France, and webtoons optimized for the mobile environment. Works owned by Japanese and French publishers are continuously being updated, and popular webtoons from Korea, Japan, and China, including Kakao Entertainment’s original super IP, are also reaching users.
Jaeyong Kim, CEO of Kakao Piccoma, said, “This achievement is the result of a strategy to reach not only existing comics fans but also all users who use content on smartphones,” adding, “We present an environment where existing offline content can be used anytime, anywhere. “We will reach many viewers and create a larger comics market,” he said.
Source: Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom
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