NAVER Accelerates Global IP Business Through Webtoon Studio-Wattpad Studio Merger
NAVER Accelerates Global IP Business Through Webtoon Studio-Wattpad Studio Merger
NAVER Accelerates Global IP Business Through Webtoon Studio-Wattpad Studio Merger
- The new studio has access to more than 5.7 million creators and 1 billion content sources, with an audience of 166 million monthly global users
- Various video adaptations, including drama series, movies and animations, are in production, following global hits, “After” and “Turn On”
- NAVER plans to invest USD 87 million in its IP business, creating more content for global users with diverse tastes
2021-06-24
NAVER Corporation announced today that it is establishing Wattpad Webtoon Studios by merging NAVER Webtoon Studio and Wattpad Studio, which NAVER acquired in May 2021. The merger is expected to create synergy in NAVER’s global intellectual property (IP) business by leveraging high-quality content from both studios.
NAVER plans to raise approximately USD 87 million (KRW 100 billion) for a fund that invest in Wattpad Webtoon Studios, where various video productions are underway in North America, South America, Europe and Southeast Asia.
Wattpad Webtoon Studios plans to invest to cover the cost of producing high-quality video content with global appeal. Through this investment, NAVER expects to bolster the profitability of its video business, based on Webtoon and Webnovel IPs.
Wattpad Webtoon Studios will launch a variety of video adaptations, including drama series, movies and animations, based on selections from more than 1 billion content sources made by about 5.7 million global creators. The goal of this new studio is to create high-quality video content for diverse audiences, based on stories that have already proven popular with 166 million combined monthly global users of NAVER Webtoon and Wattpad.
Webtoons and Web novels with excellent storytelling offer high potential as ‘one source, multi-use’ content that can be leveraged for adaptation in other formats, such as drama series, movies, games, animations and character businesses.
The newly established Wattpad Webtoon Studios will leverage Wattpad Studio’s experience in producing more than 1,500 publications and videos as well as NAVER Webtoon Studio’s rich source content.
As of this year, over 167 drama series, movies or animations are being conceptualized or are already in production, based on NAVER Webtoon and Wattpad properties. NAVER Webtoon’s horror-thriller “Sweet Home” and Wattpad’s romantic comedy “The Kissing Booth” have been turned into sensationally popular Netflix Originals with massive global viewership. “Tower of God,” a NAVER Webtoon with more than 4.5 billion views, has been turned into an anime series, produced by studios based in the U.S. and Japan and is now successfully airing on Crunchyroll and HBO Max.
In addition, Wattpad recommends works that captivate readers and provides insights to the studios for future productions of popular TV dramas and movies—powered by Wattpad’s innovative Story DNA Machine Learning technology.
Based on this technology, “After,” a Webnovel with over 1.5 billion views on Wattpad, was made into a movie, taking the No. 1 spot at box offices in 17 countries in 2019. The Vidio, a popular over-the-top video streaming service in Southeast Asia region, set a record 10 million vides for the original series “Turn On,” produced by Wattpad Studios, in the first quarter of 2021.
NAVER Webtoon is also gaining prominence in the IP business, based on the high-quality source content discovered in global markets.
“Lore Olympus,” the Webtoon by Rachel Smythe, is another example of NAVER Webtoon’s IP business success. Smythe first published “Lore Olympus” on CANVAS, NAVER’s open self-publishing platform for creators from all over the world. The title is being made into an animation series in collaboration with The Jim Henson Company and it will be published into a book in October. Wattpad Studio also has published more than 100 books, working with global creators from France, U.K., Italy and Philippines.
“Wattpad Webtoon Studios is here to knock down every remaining border in visual entertainment by developing IP across formats with a global perspective to nurture a fandom around the world,” said Aron Levitz, President of Wattpad Webtoon Studios. “We are creating a future where hundreds of millions of new stories hit screens and fill up bookshelves over the next 100 years.”
NAVER signed partnerships last October with three production studios, including Vertigo Entertainment, Rooster Teeth Studios and Bound Entertainment, to further adapt U.S.-based Webtoon IPs. In addition, Studio N, a bridging company that connects original Webtoons and movie productions, established in 2018, is expected to bring synergy to global projects as it adapts popular Webtoon-based content, including “Maybe,” “Yumi’s Cells” and “Nevertheless.”
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