[Pangyo Game & Contents] Kakao Webtoon Recorded Over One Billion Won in Just Two Days

    LOS ANGELES, CA, August 11, 2021 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Kakao Webtoon marked one billion won for turnover value in just two days of its launch recording successful start. The affiliate of Kakao Entertainment (CEO: Lee, Jin-Su and Kim, Seong-Su) has drawn lots of attention before the debut based on its innovative UX/UI and some of the best premium IPs of South Korea.

The webtoon platform claimed the top of app lists of the top two application markets, Google's Play Store and Apple's App Store heralding huge change in South Korea's webtoon industry.

It was successful debut. The platform also ranked 2nd place after TikTok for overall popularity chart and entertainment category of App Store which is the highest position among webtoon platforms.

It also ranked the first in comics category at Google Play Store. The web-based comics platform has shown significant growth pace in other three markets. Its service in Thailand and Taiwan which were begun in early June this year has renewed its highest record everyday.

Particularly, the platform's volume of daily turnover in Thailand marked 370 million won in just four days of launch claiming the top position in IOS's comics category revenue and ranked the third in entertainment category.Kakao Webtoon saw 2.5 fold increases for the number of view and the rate of unpaid-turned-paid viewers compared to its previous form of service, Daum Webtoon.

Kakao Webtoon is evaluated to be one of the two pillars of Kakao Entertainment, a comprehensive content provider. The other pillar is Kakao Page which provides webtoons and web novels.Director of Kakao Entertainment's platform business Park, Jong-chul said "The series of successes of Kakao Webtoon is result of the aggressive investment in the webtoon market over several years which led to identification of some of the best webtoons in South Korea, the company's knowhow of providing the most efficient and sophisticated user experience for webtoon and its strength of global network," adding "Kakao Entertainment will be driven by the explosive synergy of Kakao Webtoon and Kakao Page for its global business." Kakao Webtoon is a global standard webtoon platform that Kakao Entertainment poured its IT capacities and IP strengths for two years. The platform was developed based on Kakao Entertainment's philosophy of valuing IP the most and the company's new vision, IPX(IP eXperience), which means another level of IP experience. In fact, the platform was appraised by many with its dynamic UX/UI right after the launch.

Some of the representative appraisals are "It provides lively animating webtoon", "It's truly sophisticated", "Each content has distinct style of drawing" and "It opened a new possibility of webtoons with its animating thumbnails".

It was also acknowledged for its "infinite structure" which departed from the concept of up-down and left-right and for its AI curating service like "It is impressive to see its interface which draws viewers' eyes to each and every content" and "Diversity and colors of contents are guranteed systemically based on AI curating service which offers tailored recommendations, not a boring list of contents".

However, the platform's UX/UI was regarded to be too new to some as it is nothing like before. Kakao Entertainment is to forge more optimized platform environment based on continuous updates reflecting user feedbacks. An official of the company said "We are listening diverse user opinions and are going to carry out continuous improvement for better usability.

We will build an undisputed "next level" platform by keep upgrading Kakao Webtoon's user experience." Premium IPs of Kakao Webtoon are highly expected as well. The platform offers a range of IPs including super star IPs came from Daum Webtoon and Kakao Page such as "Solo Leveling" and fresh works of new writers. Some of popular IPs are also catching readers' heart with their new seasons that began in line with the launch of Kakao Webtoon.

Pangyo Technovalley is an innovation hub for global companies comparable to the Silicon Valley in the US, Zhongguancun in China, and STATION F in France. It is an Asia tech hub with 1,259 IT, BT, CT, and NT companies that possess innovative products and technologies. Located just south of the metropolitan area, it provides the best environment for Korean companies to do business with great transportation access and infrastructure.

Various high-tech companies are located in Pangyo Technovalley, and it is occupied by 64,000 full-time employees, many in their 20-30s. In terms of industry, the companies are engaged in information technology, contents technology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology.

With the support of innovative companies with global capabilities such as Kakao, Naver, AhnLab, Krafton, NCSoft, Nexon, and Hancom, companies in Pangyo Technovalley recorded 107 trillion won in sales last year. Investment and infrastructure growth in Pangyo is expected to continue, with the Metaverse hub entering Pangyo this year.

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