Naver to Invest Over KRW 100 Billion in Webtoon and Wave Media

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Company Hopes Investment Will Strengthen Overseas Content Business

Naver plans to invest more than KRW 100 billion (USD 93 million) into two of its most popular services to strengthen its overseas content business.

Last Thursday, the company announced that it had decided to invest KRW 60 billion (USD 56 million) in Naver Webtoon and KRW 53.5 billion (USD 49.5 million) in Wave Media.

Naver Webtoon is a professional webtoon platform that is popular in Korea, Japan and other Asian countries while Naver’s Wave Media subsidiary offers live streaming services in the United States using Naver's V Live video platform.

“The global webtoon market is rapidly growing, new platforms are emerging and competition is fierce,” said Naver Chief Financial Officer PARK Sang-jin during a conference call. “In order to become the number one platform worldwide, we decided to invest to secure content.”

With the most recent round of cash infusion, parent company Naver has now increased its total investment in Naver Webtoon to KRW 105.5 billion (USD 97.8 million) while subsidiary Wave Media has received a total of KRW 76.8 billion (USD 71.2 million).

“This year, we need to invest more in order to raise brand value, secure enough artists and to collaborate with production studios to expand content,” said PARK.

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