A webpage for Woowa Brothers' online comics service Manhwakyung / Captured from Manhwakyung

By Baek Byung-yeul

Webtoons have become a hot item for online platform operators such as Woowa Brothers and Watcha as companies realize the effectiveness of online comics to diversify their business portfolios, according to industry officials, Monday.

The officials said the webtoon business is one of the ways to lock in customers by providing additional services to users of their platforms.

As the importance of intellectual property (IP) has increased for platform operators, companies are starting or beefing up their webtoon business in order to utilize IPs secured by web comics in other areas such as dramas, games and advertisements.

"The so-called one source, multiuse strategy of using one IP for various businesses is becoming increasingly important for platform operators," an official at a local webtoon company said, asking for anonymity.

"Prominent companies such as Naver and Kakao make profits from dramas and movies made with their webtoon IPs and expand their influence in overseas markets with the content, which could also be the reason why platform operators are trying to enter the webtoon business," the official added.

Woowa Brothers, an operator of the nation's top online food delivery platform Baedal Minjok, is looking for more business opportunities in online comics as the company is actively recruiting staff for its webtoon service, Manhwakyung.

The company is currently expanding its webtoon business workforce in various areas by recruiting server developers, platform developers and marketers. Woowa Brothers launched the service in the second half of 2019 and the number of subscribers recently surpassed 1 million.

The company saw sales skyrocket as more and more people stayed at home after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. But its operating losses rose from 11.2 billion won in 2020 to 75.7 billion won in 2021 because of excessive competition.

Watcha, a homegrown online streaming service provider, is also seeking to expand into the webtoon business.

"Watcha will evolve from a video streaming service to a comprehensive entertainment subscription service that offers music and webtoons," Won Ji-hyun, co-founder and chief operating officer of the company, said at a press conference in February.

As competition in the video streaming service intensifies, service providers are seeking to expand their areas of business. Netflix already began marketing games based on its own IPs. Watcha's entry into the webtoon business is also viewed as an attempt to expand into a broader content area.

Game companies are also expanding their business scope to online comics to create synergy with their game IPs.

Netmarble F&C, a subsidiary of game company Netmarble, is preparing a blockchain-based metaverse platform that encompasses games, digital humans, e-commerce, online comics and novels. The company also plans to link its digital humans or virtual characters to various content such as games and online comics.

Krafton, best known for its online shooting game, "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" (PUBG), added the webtoon business to its area of business along with dramas and non-fungible tokens at a shareholders' meeting held on April 1.

"We are pursuing webtoon and drama businesses to strengthen our game IP and we plan to use the PUBG universe to create animations and live-action dramas," Kim Chang-han, CEO of Krafton, told investors.