Brain” (left) and its TV show adaptation (right). And Walt Disney’s flagship Disney+ streaming service is preparing to release Moving, based on Kakao Entertainment’s webtoon, later this year. Brain (released on Apple TV+ in 2021, the first Korean-language TV series produced for Apple’s streaming service). Examples of Kakao Entertainment’s webtoons that were adapted into hit TV shows include Business Proposal (released on Netflix in 2022), which was Netflix’s third most-watched show globally, and Dr. Kakao Entertainment says about 50 of its webtoons were sold for film or TV adaptation last year, double the number in 2020. “Many producers look for original stories from webtoons.” “Webtoon is a gold mine of original stories,” says Kakao Entertainment’s Kang. And The Kingdom of the Gods was the inspiration for the 2019 Netflix show Kingdom, which was the streaming giant’s first hit from Korea. “We’ve already witnessed great webtoons successfully being adapted to TV.”įor example, Covertness was adapted into a blockbuster film in 2013, called Secretly Greatly, which became the fastest movie in Korea to reach a million admissions (in less than 36 hours). “The original content, which has proven its power on webtoon platforms, can be turned into other formats such as live-action movies, shows, animation and games,” says Kim. Jayden Kang, global business director for the story division at Kakao Entertainment “Webtoon is a gold mine of original stories.” Some of the most popular webtoons include Covertness (2010), an action-comedy about three North Korean spies on a secret mission in a poor neighborhood in South Korea, and The Kingdom of the Gods (2014), a zombie drama set in the Joseon dynasty in Korea. There are relatively few overhead costs and a low barrier of entry for making webtoons, he says, allowing cartoonists to easily make a variety of them. The growing market for webtoons is being fueled by the diverse range of content available, says Kang. In Korea, where the webtoon format was created in the early 2000s, sales of digital comics reached 1.6 trillion won (about $1.4 billion) in 2021, up from 1.1 trillion won in 2020 and 380 billion won in 2017, according to an industry report by the state-run Korea Creative Content Agency. “It is an excellent format to reach untapped audiences, including teenagers and young adults.” “Young adults are the largest consumer group of the webtoon genre,” says Kim. Teenagers and young adults-the generations that grew up with a smartphone in their hands-are particularly drawn to the easily digestible format of webtoons, and that’s why Pinkfong is so determined to expand into the webtoons market. If you have just 10 minutes on the bus or subway, you can just turn on the app and read.” Webtoons are similar in that you don’t need to remember the whole storyline,” says Kang, who previously worked at Korean internet giant Naver, which, together with Kakao Entertainment, are the world’s two largest webtoon platforms. “TikTok content is 30 seconds or 10 seconds-very short-generally with no context. ![]() Jayden Kang, global business director for the story division at Kakao Entertainment.
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