Naver Webtoon to set up branch in France

Naver Webtoon, South Korean tech giant Naver’s web-based cartoon platform, said Monday it will open a European branch in France by June in a bid to further expand its presence in the global market.

“The branch, tentatively called 'Webtoon EU,' will oversee webtoon services in France, Germany and Spain, and discover new business opportunities in other European countries,” a Naver official said.

“With Webtoon EU, Naver Webtoon will foster a strong foothold overseas with the other two branches in North America (Los Angeles) and Japan (Tokyo).”

Naver Webtoon also plans to service 200 more webtoons in French and 100 additional webtoons in German.

The company will nurture and handpick local amateur webtoonists in Germany by launching an open webtoon platform called Canvas starting this year.

Launched in 2019, Naver Webtoon is ranked first in both sales and the number of monthly active users among the local webtoon apps serviced by Google Play and the Apple App Store in France. Naver’s German service started off last year and has taken first place in sales and the number of subscriptions.

Though refraining to disclose the number of monthly active users in France and Germany, a Naver official said the number is “growing.”

The number of users has already reached 14 million in the US and 13 million in South East Asian countries, she added.

Naver Webtoon has a total of 82 million monthly active users around the world as of January.

Monthly sales generated from subscription fees and advertisements surpassed 100 billion won ($82.6 million) in January, it added.

Launched in 2017, Naver Webtoon provides webtoons in 10 languages in over 100 countries.

By Byun Hye-jin (hyejin2@heraldcorp.com)