LINE Digital Frontier, a Japanese subsidiary of Webtoon Entertainment (own by Korean co. Naver), announced at the end of the year a strategic partnership with digital comics agency and manga studio No. 9. The goal of the collaboration is to drive the growth and global reach of Japanese webtoon content.
As of 2022, the domestic webtoon market in Japan was valued at approximately 50 billion yen, accounting for 10% of the overall digital comics market. The number of webtoon titles from Japanese creators is increasing, with some surpassing monthly sales of 100 million yen and several popular titles spawning anime and film adaptations.
No. 9’s webtoon production label, Studio No. 9, is behind notable titles like Savior of Divine Blood ~Draw Out 0.00000001% to Become the Strongest~ and I am the strongest awakener, recognized by all of the world’s cheat masters. Both titles have ranked high on the annual charts for LINE Manga, the leading digital manga app in Japan. LINE Digital Frontier also operates eBookJapan.
The new alliance will capitalize on the production know-how of No. 9 and the global reach of LINE’s digital distribution in pursuit of three key goals for “Creating the Future of Manga”: To foster sustainable growth for Japanese webtoons, accelerate the global expansion of domestic titles and develop new hit IPs.
[Source: Oricon]
