WEBTOON’s Japanese subsidiary, LINE Digital Frontier, has completed its acquisition of eBOOK Initiative Japan, a Japanese e-book service provider. The move is expected to strengthen WEBTOON’s leadership in Japan, securing the No.1 position in Japan’s digital comics market.
LINE Digital Frontier, which operates the Japanese webtoon service LINE MANGA , announced on March 4th that it had secured a 100% stake in eBook Initiative Japan. eBook Initiative Japan will be incorporated as a subsidiary of LINE Digital Frontier.
Founded in 2000, eBook Initiative Japan operates ebookjapan and bookfan, an online service for print books. eBook Japan is linked through Yahoo ! JAPAN, the country’s largest portal site. . The company hosts more than 800,000 works, of which 95% of sales are manga.
In 2021, LINE MANGA and eBook Japan had a combined transaction amount of 76.5 billion yen (approximately 800 billion KRW), and more than 20 million MAU.
The acquisition is expected to create new synergies across WEBTOON’s Japanese business, adding new web service strength and capabilities to LINE MANGA’s leadership in mobile technology. The acquisition will enable the companies to distribute and promote digital comics and content simultaneously on both services, and also improve exposure through the popular Yahoo ! JAPAN portal.
WEBTOON Founder & Global CEO Junkoo Kim said, “Japan is the world’s largest comics market, and this acquisition will supercharge our business in the country. By bringing eBook Japan into the WEBTOON family, we’ll be able to expand the digital comics ecosystem for creators and fans across Japan and solidify LINE MANGA’s growing influence in the Japanese incredible content industry.”
WEBTOON also plans to expand its local creator ecosystem in Japan, growing its local footprint in the market, which is home to the world’s most influential manga artists. The company will also grow its content offering on the LINE MANGA service by adding a variety of hit Korean digital comics.
The move comes after WEBTOON’s recent announcement that it will establish a European corporation, which will be based in France, expanding its presence in the region and solidifying its position as #1 in the European digital comics market and world’s largest digital comics platform.
Source: Press Release
