Despite previous concerns following the ‘Line incident,’ Naver Webtoon’s Japanese language service, Line Manga, has achieved a significant milestone. For the first time in approximately four years, Line Manga ranked first in sales in the Japanese app market last month, dispelling doubts about its viability and proving its competitiveness. This achievement underscores the platform’s strong position in the Japanese webtoon market.
The success of Line Manga can be attributed to its consistent release of several hit works that generate substantial revenue. By maintaining a steady production of popular webtoons, Line Manga has managed to attract and retain a large user base, further solidifying its presence in the market.
According to Data.AI, a mobile data analysis company, Line Manga topped the sales charts among all apps, including games, in the Japanese app markets such as Google Play Store and Apple App Store last month. This remarkable performance positioned Line Manga ahead of Piccoma, a digital comics platform operated by Kakao Piccoma.
It is noteworthy that this is the first instance since July 2020 that Line Manga has outperformed Kakao Piccoma on a single app basis, highlighting a significant achievement for the platform. This development indicates a shift in consumer preferences and the growing popularity of Line Manga.
The key to Line Manga’s success lies in its consistent production of popular works. Last year, the webtoon ‘Admission Mercenary’ on Line Manga surpassed 100 million yen in monthly transaction volume. Following this success, the platform continued to release large-scale works such as ‘Plundering Bride,’ ‘Empress Remarriage,’ and ‘Boy in Luv,’ each earning 100 million yen per month.
Recently, ‘New Blood Savior,’ created by a Japanese webtoon production company, demonstrated its competitiveness by exceeding 100 million yen in monthly transaction volume. Since its launch on Naver Webtoon service last month, ‘New Blood Savior’ has received favorable reviews and is set to debut in North America in June.
In addition to its robust content production, Line Digital Frontier, the operator of Line Manga, strategically expanded its reach by acquiring the e-book service company ‘E-Book Initiative Japan’ in 2022. This acquisition allowed Line Digital Frontier to cater to users through the app-centered service ‘Line Manga’ and the web-centered ‘E-book Japan’ platform operated by E-Book Initiative Japan.
As a result, the combined monthly active users (MAU) of these platforms reached 21.1 million in the first quarter of this year. Furthermore, the cumulative transaction volume from January to November last year exceeded 100 billion yen (approximately 890 billion won), underscoring the substantial growth and influence of Line Digital Frontier in the digital comics market.
