As Netflix's drama Squid Game sweeps the entire world with 3.26 billion minutes views by the end of 2021, investors in the global market now realize that "new stories with non-North American narratives" are gaining a strong foothold in the post-Avengers era. Behind this unprecedented success are the ever-expanding foundation of Japanese comics, the strong globalization of South Korean comics, and the newly emerging comic forces in other parts of Asia.
Naver and Kakao, two comic giants with different approaches
South Korean comic giants Naver (Naver Webtoon + Line Webtoon) and Kakao (Daum Webtoon + Kakao Page + Piccoma) as top content industrialization players represent two differentiating approaches in the digital comics platform.
In 2014, Naver's Line Webtoon was officially launched in the North American market and has since become the world's most active digital comics platform. As for Kakao's Piccoma, which launched in 2016, surpassed Japan's Line Manga and became the most profitable digital comics platform in the world in August 2020.
New players continue to emerge: Bilibili Comics
As the global market expands, more and more new players decide to join the competition. According to App Annie's data, Bilibili Comics has gained 3 million monthly active users (MAU) and a daily active peak of 824,000 in just six months after its launch in April 2021. The platform's MAU now ranks 3rd in the highly competitive English-speaking market.
One of the platform's most popular comics is a trending IP with great potential, Heaven Official's Blessing. With its massive worldview integrating with a plot filled with mystical Chinese history, it created 19 global trend hashtags on Twitter when its animated version was launched.
From recent trends and comparisons among Bilibili Comics and its counterparts, we can see that the digital comics platforms have great potentials in the global entertainment market. Based on the Korean comic giants' successes in globalization, it is undeniable that Bilibili Comics has great prospects in expanding to North America, South America, Europe and Asia markets. In the foreseeable future, digital comics will surely develop their force against major entertainment companies.
