KT also jumped into the’Korean version of Marvel’ war… Webtoons and web novels that increase the ransom

This is the plot of the webtoon’Legend of Regression’ by writer Kwangsoo Kim. This webtoon is planned to be made into a drama by KT’s new content company,’KT Studio Genie’. KT announced on the 28th that it will establish KT Studio Genie, a content company that encompasses investment, planning, production, and distribution.

KT Studio Genie plans to release original content based on original intellectual property rights (IP) secured through StoryWiz, a web novel and webtoon distributor, which is an affiliate. The new corporation will produce 10 to 20 original content series by 2023 and release them through KT’s Internet TV (IPTV) and online video service (OTT),’Season’.

KT, a telecommunications company, announced its launch in the IP content market dominated by Naver and Kakao with the aim of becoming the’Korean version of Marvel’. As webtoons and web novels emerged as a’goose that gives birth to a golden egg’, not only Naver and Kakao but also telecommunications companies are putting their arms on the’webtoon/web novel → video content’ business.

Naver and Kakao have been making wide progress in recent years, focusing on webtoons and web novels. On the 21st, Naver acquired’Whatpad’, the world’s number one web novel platform, for 600 million dollars (about 650 billion won). Whatpad is a web fiction platform used by over 90 million people around the world.

Kakao also spent 100 billion won in the second half of last year alone to secure stakes in five IP content companies, starting with the US web novel platform’Radish’. On the 25th, Kakao Entertainment, which merges Kakao Page, a webtoon and web novel platform, and Kakao M, which produces drama and movie content, was launched.

Kim Chang-kwon, a researcher at Mirae Asset Daewoo, said, “The existing entertainment industry has a high risk because it cannot guarantee a box office even with high production costs. “It is an easy platform to enter overseas markets here.”

In fact, Kakao Page and Daum Webtoon owned the IP, and the’wonderful rumors’ became popular as they were aired on OCN and Netflix as a drama. It is scheduled to be published in the North American webtoon platform’Tapas’ in the near future.

Webtoons and web novels tend to expand their domain to advertisements and commerce as well as videos such as dramas and movies. For example, Naver’s popular webtoon’The Goddess Advent’ was shown as a drama on tvN. On the 28th, it will sell products with webtoon IP through Naver’s’Shopping Live’ channel. Naver Shopping Live Leader Song Jae-hoon said, “We will present the possibility of endless IP transformation, expansion of fandom, and new branding that leads to webtoon-drama-commerce.”

It is possible to catch the two rabbits of entry into the global market and flexible scalability, but there are also voices of concern as to whether telecommunications companies can secure competitiveness. Earlier, SK Telecom (T Play) and KT (Olleh Webtoon) entered the webtoon market in 2013, but there is a’black history’ that did not produce any results.

Researcher Chang-Kwon Kim said, “In the content industry, as novel ideas and unexpectedness are key requirements for success, a flexible organizational culture that can accommodate creative ideas is needed, free from the rigid organizational culture unique to telecommunications companies.

Reporter Kim Kyung-jin [email protected]