The Walt Disney Co. will acquire a 2% equity stake in Webtoon Entertainment Inc., a digital comic and novel platform operator owned by South Korea’s internet giant Naver Corp., as they team up to build a new digital comics platform featuring the US entertainment giant’s marquee brands, including Marvel and Star Wars.
California-based Disney and Webtoon announced in separate news releases on Monday (local time) that they have signed a non-binding term sheet to develop a new digital comics platform that will house both ongoing series and decades of back issues across Disney’s portfolio.
The service will unite more than 35,000 titles from Marvel, Star Wars, Disney Studios, Pixar and 20th Century Studios under one subscription, marking Disney’s first dedicated digital comics platform in the company’s over 100-year history.
Built and operated by Webtoon Entertainment, the new platform will expand on Marvel Unlimited, Disney’s existing comics subscription service, while adding Webtoon Originals and offering a mix of vertical and traditional formats.
Select Disney comics will also be localized for Webtoon’s Korean and Japanese services.
As part of the deepening ties, Disney also signed a separate non-binding term sheet to acquire a 2% equity stake in Webtoon Entertainment.
The investment, along with the commercial collaboration, is subject to final agreements and customary closing conditions.
Investors welcomed the expanded partnership, sending shares of Nasdaq-listed Webtoon Entertainment surging as much as 90% in after-hours trading on Monday. It closed up 5.06% at $14.96.
Naver shares ended up 0.4% at 235,000 won ($170.40) in Seoul trading on Tuesday.
BUILDING ON A PREVIOUS DEAL
The deal builds on a multiyear agreement the companies announced last month to adapt about 100 franchises from Marvel, Star Wars, Disney Studios and 20th Century Studios into Webtoon’s service.
“Through our expanded relationship with Webtoon, the global leader in digital comics, we’re opening doors to new audiences and deepening fan engagement,” Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences at the Walt Disney, said after the new partnership announcement.
“With a new platform that will combine our product and technical expertise with Disney’s full comic catalog, we’re giving new and longtime fans all over the world a new way to discover these legendary characters and stories,” said Kim Jun-koo, founder and chief executive officer of Webtoon Entertainment.
Founded in 2005, Webtoon is the parent company of Seoul-based Naver Webtoon Corp., one of the world’s largest online comics platforms. It is 60.6% owned by Naver and 24.4% by LY Corp., formerly Line Yahoo.
The company has 155 million monthly active users in more than 150 countries, with 24 million creators contributing content.
Its other subsidiaries include LINE Digital Frontier Corp. in Japan and Wattpad in Canada, a digital comics and novel platform. It also operates Webtoon Productions, Studio N, Studio LICO, Webtoon Unscrolled, LINE MANGA and eBookJapan, among others.
Webtoon and Disney reached the first deal after about a year of negotiations, according to people familiar with the deal.
Disney was said to have weighed several global platforms for webtoon distribution before striking the deal with the Korean digital comics platform in hopes of capturing a share of the rapidly growing global online comics market, particularly among younger readers.
By Sookyung Seo
skseo@hankyung.com
Jennifer Nicholson-Breen edited this article.
