LINE Digital Frontier, WEBTOON Entertainment Inc.’s (NASDAQ: WBTN) Japanese subsidiary that operates LINE Manga and eBookJapan, has made a strategic investment in No. 9 Inc. The deal will boost WEBTOON Entertainment’s content pipeline in Japan, the company’s fastest-growing market.
As part of the deal, No. 9 Inc. will appoint an outside director from LINE Digital Frontier to its board.
Japan’s No. 9 Inc. produces and publishes manga and webcomics, including “Savior of Divine Blood,” “I Am the Strongest Transcendent,” and other hit titles on WEBTOON Entertainment’s global platforms. No. 9 Inc.-produced webcomics have been localized for WEBTOON Entertainment’s fans around the world, translated into Korean, English, Chinese (Traditional), French, Thai, and Indonesian.
“Japan is the home of manga and some of the world’s most exciting comic art, so it’s a natural growth market for our global business,” said Junkoo Kim, CEO & Founder of WEBTOON Entertainment. “We’ve spent years cultivating our IP & Creator Ecosystem in Japan, leading to strong growth and a string of hits. Working with No. 9 Inc., we’ve already developed global hits with series like ‘Savior of Divine Blood,’ and we’re excited to expand our partnership to produce more incredible Japanese webcomics for local and global audiences.”
WEBTOON Entertainment’s LINE Manga app topped the overall app market by revenue–including games–multiple times in 2024, according to SensorTower. The company is working with Japanese partners to develop a number of hit IP for screens around the world, including an anime adaptation of the hit “Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint” series alongside Aniplex and Crunchyroll, and an adaptation of “GOSU” with Toei, creators of the popular “Dragon Ball” and “One Piece” series.
Japan’s webcomic market was estimated to be about 10 percent of the electronic comic market–or about 50 billion yen–in 2022*.
Source: Press Release
