Google to target global webtoon sector with Korean creators

BENGALURU – Google teamed up with South Korean creators to target the global webtoon industry, spurring expectations that global Big Tech companies may follow suit to expand their presence in the rapidly growing sector with authors in the country, home to the only-only comics.

Google Play said on Tuesday that the Korea Webtoon Industry Association (KWIA) and global digital comics platform Dashtoon signed a cooperation deal as a part of the partnership agreement between the digital distribution service of Google and the association inked last year to support the global expansion of the South Korean webtoons.

The KWIA is set to supply digital comics in the US and India through Dashtoon, while the platform is poised to introduce the Dashtoon Studio, its generative artificial intelligence tool for webtoon production, to South Korean creators.

“The Indian market will become a treasure for the webtoon industry,” said KWIA Chairman Seo Bum-gang.

Dashtoon headquartered in San Francisco with offices in London and Bengaluru creates webtoons with the AI tool and distributes digital comics through its own platform.

Google Play will help South Korean webtoons to make inroads into India, the world’s most populous country.

SHOULD NOT RELY ONLY ON MAJOR PLATFORMS

The move is expected to allow South Korean creators to go global without domestic platform giants such as Naver Corp. and Kakao Corp., which have units for online comics.

“I don’t think works by individual creators or smaller companies should rely only on major platforms,” Seo said.

Dashtoon pledged to support South Korean webtoons’ expansion in India.

“In India, a population of 1.4 billion speaks eight different languages, each with regional nuances. This diversity influences content preferences, which may pose challenges for South Korean creators entering the Indian market,” said Dashtoon Chief Operating Officer Lalith Gudipati. “Dashtoon can now provide support.”

The South Korean webtoon industry is seeking to expand overseas businesses as the local market is saturated.

Webtoon readers, who enjoyed digital comics once or more a week, made up 62.8% of total users last year, down from 69% in 2022, according to the Korea Creative Content Agency.

Webtoon Entertainment Inc., Naver’s online comics platform, went public on Nasdaq in June, expanding its global businesses.

Write to Dong-jin Hwang at radhwang@hankyung.com
 
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.