Google Play launch on the 17th local time
With the full support of Founder Kim Bum-soo
Started in France and expanded across Europe
[Seoul Economy]
Kakao Piccomas webtoon platform Piccoma, a subsidiary of Kakao, has entered the French market. Kakao Piccoma is also a core subsidiary that Kakao founder Kim Beom-soo recently resigned as chairman and said that he would actively support it as a global forward base. Piccomas strategy is to continue its success story in Europe, based on its experience of taking the first place in the Japanese market and the full support of the headquarters.
According to the industry on the 18th, Kakao Piccoma launched an application on the Google Play Store in France on the 17th and started its official service. A web version and Apple App Store app will also be available in the first half of this year.
‘Pickoma’, operated by Kakao Piccoma, started service in Japan in 2016. As it started as a latecomer, the first start was weak, but in 2020, five years later, Line Manga surpassed Line Manga and ranked first in the Japanese digital comics market. △Introduced the ‘wait free’ business model △ One comic book was divided into ‘Episode 1, Episode 2… One of the main success strategies is to reduce the burden on users by applying the flower-segment method, which is divided into .
Kakao Piccoma is a strategy to enter the European market based on its successful experience in Japan. Accordingly, in September, a European corporation was established in France and a platform launch strategy optimized for the local area was established. As France is a European powerhouse of traditional comics with famous comics such as Asterix and Tintin, Kakao plans to expand its business across Europe using France as a bridgehead. An official from Kakao Piccoma said, “The digital comics market is growing rapidly in France, and Japanese manga has a high preference.”
Starting with the official launch of the French service, Kakao Piccoma is expected to focus on targeting the European market. Kakao Piccoma is evaluated as a key pillar of Kakaos aggressive overseas business expansion. In fact, last years sales of Kakao Piccoma were 461.1 billion won, an increase of more than 18 times compared to 2017. This amount also accounts for more than 70% of Kakaos overseas sales last year.
Kakao Piccoma is also the only place among Kakao subsidiaries where founder Kim, who recently resigned as chairman to focus on overseas business, is serving as an inside director. Since 2017, he has served as an inside director of Kakao Piccoma and has helped overseas business by going back and forth between Korea and Japan. Founder Kim recently stepped down from the chairmanship and publicly announced that he would fully support Piccoma, saying, “In the future, Piccoma will expand into various fields beyond content and become a key bridgehead for the global growth of the Kakao community.” .
Kim Hyung-rae, CEO of Kakao Piccoma Europe, said, “French Piccoma will continue to provide fresh works in a variety of genres to satisfy the diverse tastes and delicate needs of users. We will expand the proportion of the works by covering all fields,” he said.
