Kakao Entertainment is expanding its services besides music after acquiring two US-based storytelling platforms, Tapas and Radish for $950 million.
The recent scuffle of the South Korean company with Spotify has been seen to be a resounding dispute for the fans especially that the Swedish music audio streaming provider ruled out the removal of several K-pop songs in the platform.
Kakao Entertainment Purchases Tapas, Radish for North American Market
The known tech titan, Kakao Corp. has been holding Kakao Entertainment for its music service to the people. This time, the expansion of the company has been far-reaching to a large population after it successfully acquired two US storytelling startups, Tapas and Radish, Musically reported.
In an interview with Reuters last week, Lee Jin-soo, the CEO of Kakao Entertainment said that they are planning to reach the North American market through the IP (intellectual property business.
The South Korean company, which was formerly called Kakao Inc. has merged with Daum Communications in 2014. It bought Tapas for $510 million. Radish, the fiction story-focus app was acquired for $440 million.
Due to the boom of its service across South Korea, Kakao hopes that its webtoons will work as well in the west.
According to Tapas CEO Kim Chang-won via Mnews, Kakao Entertainment CEO Jin-soo has visited the United States at the beginning of 2020. During that time, Jin-soo has been focused on the collaborative workshop with the comics app. The two CEOs shared moments and came up with a conclusion that they have the "same" vision for the global IP business.
Furthermore, the relationship between the two companies had been more fruitful as they agreed to cooperate. As a result, the shares' acquisition had been smooth at both ends. Due to the supreme performance of Kakao when it comes to webtoon service, it has the upper hand to lead the industry.
Moreover, Chang-won stated that what made Kakao interested in acquiring Tapas was the potential introduction of new content to a new region.
In the US, the storytelling community had been seen to be headed for an original production that's why Tapas discovered that Kakao could develop a "super IP" from the US by connecting to the "studio tapas" which houses more than 63,000 tapastri (writers).
At one point in time, the acquisition of the US startups could mean goodbye for them but on the brighter side, this marks the start of a new-gen content and competition. Tapas and Radish would potentially bloom under Kakao's management.
Kakao and Naver are Competing in Web Comics
According to a report by Nikkei Asia, Naver, another webcomic giant, has also acquired Canada's Wattpad. Through this acquisition, Kakao has included a fierce competitor in the same field.
In line with the purchase, the two firms are reportedly planning to list the subsidiaries of their webcomics on the American stock market as part of their expansion tactics. An estimate of more than one trillion yen is expected to be involved, as per South Korean security companies.
We have seen Japan's own manga to be rapidly and continuously flourishing--with no signs of aging. Maybe, it's time for the South Korean webcomics to grow as well--this time for a change of taste and variety for a wide audience.
Related Article: Kakao merges with Daum to take on Naver's Line: Messaging apps, fight!
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Written by Joseph Henry
