Webtoon Entertainment, the parent company of the popular webcomics platform Webtoon, has filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission to begin the process of becoming a publicly traded company. According to the prospectus, Webtoon would list its stock on the NASDAQ market under the WBTN symbol.
The prospectus is a great read if you’re interested in the business aspects of Webtoon, how it operates and how it views creators, who are vital to its business model. It’s also very readable, compared to a lot of legal/government filings, as it tells the story of the company and its founder/CEO, Junkoo Kim.
“The project was born out of my own love of comics, which I’ve been passionate about since I was young,” Kim writes in his opening message. “Comics are like a window into another world, capable of transporting readers to distant, fantastic places, and creating new perspectives. I’ve long admired the talented artists who create comics and have the incredible gift of building entire universes on a page. I truly love visual stories and storytelling, which is why I am so passionate about helping a diverse new generation of creators succeed.”
Kim was a search engineer at the Naver Corporation, the South Korean internet conglomerate that currently owns Webtoon Entertainment, when he came up with the idea for it. According to the paperwork, Naver would retain a controlling interest in Webtoon after the public offering. The exact percentage of ownership they plan to offer and the opening price have not been determined and aren’t included in the document. They also don’t plan to offer a dividend for the foreseeable future (which is something my dad will ask about if he sees this).
But what is included? Stat and data on Webtoon, as displayed in this handy infographic and the document itself:
Continue reading “WBTN: Webtoon registers with the SEC to go public”