Webtoon Entertainment soars on Nasdaq debut, eyes global franchise success

Naver Webtoon's booth at the 51st Angouleme Cartoon Festival in France. [NAVER WEBTOON]

 
Webtoon Entertainment chief envisions that the company could birth the next major global franchise on par with the cultural impact of Harry Potter or Pokemon after the company’s successful debut on the U.S. Nasdaq market on Thursday.
 
Webtoon Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based digital comics company owned by Korea’s leading portal site Naver, saw its share price close 9.5 percent higher than its initial offering price.
 
Trading under the ticker “WBTN,” Webtoon Entertainment closed at $23, making a 9.5 percent increase from its initial offering price of $21.
 
At that price, the company will raise $315 million through offering 15 million shares of common stock.
 
Webtoon Entertainment is currently valued over $2.9 billion based on the Thursday’s closing share price.
 
“There are 24 million creators who’ve generated 55 million content that could be consumed anywhere in the world,” Kim said at the online press briefing on Thursday. “What earned the appeal of global investors is that the ‘next big thing,’ equivalent to the cultural effect of Harry Potter or Pikachu, may stem from Webtoon Entertainment.”
 
Kim points to the flourishing diversity of content as the primary driver behind the company’s future success.
 
“Webtoon Entertainment’s competitive edge lies in diversity,” Kim said. “There exists many forms of content players in the world. [While in TV series or films], it might take some 200 people 2 years to create one whole content, but for us, our leverage is that we are a platform company who provides the gateway for each individual creator to generate their own content.”
 
Naver retains a 63.4 percent stake in Webtoon Entertainment to remain the majority shareholder with the right to appoint board directors. Line Yahoo, the Tokyo-based operator behind Line and Yahoo Japan, follows with a 24.7 percent stake in the company.
 
Webtoon Entertainment arrived at its current management form after recapitalization between Naver Webtoon and Line Digital Frontier, the operator behind Japan’s digital comic service Line Manga, in 2020.
 
The following year, Naver acquired the Toronto-based self-publishing platform Wattpad for $600 million and placed it under Webtoon Entertainment.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]