2024-06-27 18:55:53
Anticipated company worth of three.7 trillion gained
Comedian books was once learn in secret, now a serious business
Naver Webtoon has entered the U.S. inventory market primarily based on its explosive reputation within the U.S. market. The general public providing worth was additionally determined to be the very best inside the desired vary. Beginning with Naver Webtoon, world curiosity in Okay-webtoons is growing. Up to now, cartoons that had been watched secretly from dad and mom have been reborn as Okay-webtoons and are rising into a big business.
In accordance with Bloomberg Information on the twenty sixth (native time), the general public providing worth of Webtoon Leisure, the headquarters and North American subsidiary of Naver Webtoon, was set at $21 per share (roughly 29,000 gained), which is on the higher finish of the specified vary of $18 to $21 per share. Kim Jun-goo, the CEO who led Naver Webtoon, is predicted to obtain a complete of 90 billion gained in financial compensation. Evaluation means that this displays the excessive curiosity of native traders within the Korean webtoon business.
Naver Webtoon enters the U.S. inventory market
Webtoon Leisure is predicted to situation 15 million shares of frequent inventory and lift $315 million (about 440 billion gained) via this preliminary public providing (IPO). The company worth is predicted to succeed in about $2.7 billion (about 3.72 trillion gained).
Webtoon Leisure is traded on the NASDAQ market below the inventory code ‘WBTN’. After itemizing, Naver would be the controlling shareholder with a 63.4% stake in Webtoon Leisure and may have the fitting to nominate administrators. One other shareholder, Line Yahoo (LY Company), holds a 24.7% stake.
As Okay-webtoons gained reputation, webtoon leisure gross sales reached $1.282 billion (about 1.77 trillion gained) final 12 months, a rise of about 20% from the earlier 12 months ($1 billion).
Naver Webtoon plans to rework into the ‘Disney of Asia’ by strengthening its synthetic intelligence (AI) know-how, securing its content material lineup, and increasing its IP enterprise primarily based on the funds raised via this IPO.
Specifically, the mental property (IP) enterprise is taken into account a area with excessive progress potential. Simply as Disney began with cartoon animation and constructed a media empire that encompasses numerous fields comparable to live-action movies and on-line video providers (OTT), Naver Webtoon can be planning to make use of IP to have interaction in numerous companies with out being restricted to the webtoon platform.
Within the meantime, Naver Webtoon has been actively finishing up a enterprise that calls itself ‘One Story Multi-Use’ and always emphasizes the significance of story IP growth, remaking its personal webtoon or internet novel content material into dramas or films.
There are over 100 movies primarily based on webtoons, over 70 video games primarily based on webtoons, 200 volumes of webtoons and internet novels, and over 900 works have been commercialized.
●Rising funding within the improvement of future applied sciences comparable to AI
By 2025, 180.8 billion gained will probably be invested within the improvement of future applied sciences comparable to AI. Final 12 months, Webtoon Leisure merged Naver Webtoon’s AI and knowledge organizations and developed numerous AI applied sciences and utilized them to providers. Consultant examples embrace a curation perform that recommends works that readers need and an AI Painter beta service that helps with coloring.
The one that contributed most to the expansion of Naver Webtoon into a worldwide firm and its itemizing on Nasdaq is CEO Jun-gu Kim. CEO Kim is predicted to obtain a complete of 90 billion gained value of economic compensation. CEO Kim has an choice to buy 3,461,670 shares of Webtoon Leisure inventory at $11.04 per share. Upon itemizing, CEO Kim will obtain restricted switch inventory (RSU) for 14,815 shares of the corporate’s frequent inventory and a money bonus of $30 million (roughly 42 billion gained). Even excluding RSUs, it’s value 90 billion gained.
CEO Kim, who began out as a Naver Webtoon worker, is credited with discovering many in style writers, together with Jo Seok, Gian84, and Kim Gyu-sam, and establishing the service. He performed a number one position in introducing the Accomplice Revenue Share (PPS), which shares earnings generated from webtoons with writers.
This itemizing is the results of Naver Webtoon’s achievement of roughly 20 years because it started its official service in December 2005. As of the primary quarter of this 12 months, Naver Webtoon has entered greater than 150 nations and secured 169 million month-to-month lively customers, establishing itself as a worldwide story tech platform. As of the top of final 12 months, it had 55 million items of content material and had 24 million creators. Over the previous 10 years, greater than 100 webtoon IPs, together with ‘Candy House’, ‘Our Faculty Now’, and ‘Masks Lady’, have been produced as video content material.
The explanation Naver Webtoon was in a position to achieve reputation in Japan and america, the main nations within the comics business, is as a result of it innovated the whole artistic and consumption tradition of the present comics market and created a creator-centered ecosystem the place anybody can current their very own story.
The creator-centered ecosystem in the end led to content material diversification and the success of the Korean webtoon market, together with Naver Webtoon. The change in format appropriate for cellular units additionally performed a component. Earlier than Naver Webtoon first began its service in 2004, it was merely a format the place comedian books had been scanned and uploaded to the Web.
At the moment, the worldwide comics market was divided between america and Japan. Korean webtoon corporations modified their content material and format to swimsuit Web scrolling, in contrast to present comics that turned pages, and grew explosively with the unfold of smartphones.
Reporter Nam Hye-jeong [email protected]
2024-06-27 18:55:53