Naver Webtoon, a global storytelling platform, has achieved success in the French market . According to App Annie, a global app research company, on the 10th, Naver Webtoon ranked first in sales and downloads in the French Google Play comics category .
Naver Webtoon entered the European market in earnest by launching a French service in December 2019 . Afterwards, it switched to a paid service in November of last year, and proved its competitiveness by maintaining the top spot in the French Google Play comics category for more than 200 days from immediately after switching to a paid service . It ranks 12th in the entertainment category of the French Apple App Store and is competing with global OTT platforms such as Netflix and Disney Plus .
Content First’s Taffytoon, in which Naver Webtoon invested, is also performing well, ranking second in the French Google Play comics sector sales rankings . Tappytoon is a global webtoon platform currently serving 5 million people in approximately 190 countries , and Naver Webtoon acquired a 25% stake in Contents First in March to secure business partnerships and content .
Naver Webtoon is growing rapidly in the French market through its CANVAS system , which discovers local content through contests and trains amateur writers, as well as a strategy of translating and presenting Korean webtoon content that has been verified in the existing market . This is a strategy to build a global webtoon ecosystem, starting with ‘thorough localization’ .
Korean works that are greatly loved in Korea are also very popular in France . Representative examples include > and > . Webtoon > is a romance story about Lim Ju-kyung, a high school student with an appearance complex, growing up through makeup, and boasts about 620,000 subscribers in France . In addition, Webtoon > also has about 340,000 French subscribers . Based on the popular web novel of the same name, it tells the story of an empress who leaves the emperor’s side after having a change of heart and announces her intention to remarry the emperor of the country next to her .
Since last July, Naver Webtoon has been holding a French webtoon contest (WEBTOON CONCOURS 2021) . It is France’s largest webtoon contest with a total prize of 77,000 euros (approximately 100 million won ) , and is now in its second year . The grand prize winner will receive a prize of 15,000 euros (approximately 20 million won ) and the privilege of having the work published officially on Naver Webtoon’s French service . In particular , the number of applicants this year increased by more than 50% compared to last year, showing that local people’s interest in webtoons has increased .
Naver Webtoon French service leader Kim Sol said, “France is an important market in building a global webtoon ecosystem, boasting the largest comics market in Europe after Germany.” He added, “We will continue to present competitive content through a thorough localization strategy , and “We plan to actively expand the European market, including . ”
Source: Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom
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