In news that I didn’t expect to be writing, Kakao has launched a new webtoon platform less than two months after shutting down the second biggest webtoon platform in North America.
If you’ve been living under a rock, you might not know that Kakao recently announced the closure of Tapas, the #2 webtoon platform in North America back in September. This reprents the end of Kakao’s overseas webtoon platform ambitions leaving only the Korean (Kakao Page, Kakao Webtoon) and Japanese (Piccoma) platforms left.
That is, until last week when Piccoma launched their newest webtoon platform in Japan: LuluMiru.
The Devil’s Advocate
In a lot of ways, it makes sense.
Before the merger, Kakao and Piccoma were two separate entities providing content in Korea and Japan, respectively. And while the Korean market has seen the closure of multiple webtoon platforms, the argument could be made that Japan’s market has some blue ocean left.
It would be a difficult argument to make, but it could be made.
More specifically, that there is still profit to be squeezed from high-revenue niche genres like Boy’s Love.
Just this year, Kidari Studio announced the long running Lezhin Japan platform would be closing and they would be migrating user accounts and libraries (where possible) to BeLtoon, their younger and more successful BL webtoon platform.
And while BeLToon is a successful BL webtoon platform in Japan, it’s just the one. Considering the monumental popularity in Japan, the argument could be said that Piccoma’s entrance into the market has a tremendous upside. At least for Piccoma.
Big Push in the Heart of BL
In order to penetrate the already existing BL market in Japan, LuluMiru is offering a 50% coupon that can be used on multiple titles and multiple times on the platform. All users have to do is sign up before November 30 for this coupon that’ll be available to use until December 31st.
This isn’t an unheard of strategy. When Toptoon first launched their webtoon service in the west (Toptoon+), they left the entire site open for free before locking their content behind a paywall.
While offering 50% off of all (or most) of their content isn’t as big a step, it’s still a big push.
On the marketing front, LuluMiru is pushing hard in Ikeukuro with what can only be described as a “freakin’ great” marketing campaign.
Silhouette cutouts of BL characters set up in the heart of Japan’s BL community to announce the launch of a new BL platform? I never thought of that, but it sounds perfect.
Japanese socials are already buzzing, so there’s no doubt to whether or not it’s an effective push into Japan. But let’s be real, no one outside of Asia is going to be talking about LuluMiru because we’re all still scratching our heads over Tapas.
The Webtoon Industry is (More than a Little) Screwed
It’s not any stretch of the imagination to say that the international webtoon industry is still reeling from the officially announced closure of Tapas by Kakao Entertainment.
Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain
A lot of people might think it bad taste to launch a new webtoon platform so soon after shutting down another platform without properly working out the licensing and publishing rights with the creatives that published on that platform, effectively leaving them in limbo.
It’s doubtful that the closure of Tapas had anything to do with the launch of LuluMiru or vice versa. A launch like this isn’t a small endeavor, it would’ve taken months to put together the licensing deals and code the website as well as navigate the legal process of registering and launching a new business in Japan.
The platform launch itself has a small line in Kakao’s Q3 financials under the Piccoma business heading where a “new service expansion” is mentioned next to the financial results from Q3. Results, I might add, that dropped year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter.
It’s important to note here that Kakao’s entertainment division which includes webtoons and webnovels outside of the Japanese market also saw a significant drop. Basically, the webtoon and webnovel business for Kakao Piccoma has seen a significant decline the world over.
They might ask why a company whose public image is being dragged on socials would choose to do this.
And to them, I say… money.
The BL genre is profitable and has been for decades. Increasing distribution has only made it more so and, for Japan with an audience of high ARPPU, it's shocking that Piccoma hadn't done this already.
Is it bad timing? Absolutely.
Should someone have been more considerate of the visuals? Probably.
Does anyone at Kakao Piccoma care? I don’t know, but I’d bet against it.