KakaoPage will use Korea and Japan as a launch pad to expand into the U.S., China, and Southeast Asia through continued investments and M&A, and establish a truly global network by 2022

SEOUL, South Korea and SINGAPORE, Sept. 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- KakaoPage was represented today by CEO Lee Jinsoo at APOS 2020, a forum for sharing the latest developments in the Asian Pacific media, telecoms and entertainment industry. He shared KakaoPage's business performance and future vision.

Lee Jinsoo, CEO of KakaoPage announces at APOS 2020 that Korea’s No. 1 story entertainment company intends to establish a global network across the U.S., China, and Southeast Asia by 2022

Organized by Media Partners Asia, APOS is Asia's leading conference for the content industry, including the media, telecoms, and entertainment sectors. It brings together industry leaders from all over the region to share the latest industry trends and insights. KakaoPage CEO Lee Jinsoo was invited to speak at the conference for two years in a row, adding to his reputation as a leader in the global story entertainment industry. The conference pivoted online this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Disney, Google, Discovery, NHK, Sony Pictures, Amazon Prime and others joined the conference alongside KakaoPage.

The September series of APOS 2020 was held online over three days starting September 1. In a session held on September 3, KakaoPage CEO Lee Jinsoo took part in an in-depth discussion with Vivek Couto, a founder of the conference organizer, Media Partners Asia, on the topic of "Innovating Story Entertainment." 

In the session, Lee shared KakaoPage's recent business performance and corporate vision. Celebrating its tenth anniversary, KakaoPage has projected that it will reach 500 billion Korean Won in annual GMV this year. He also revealed that Piccoma, the Kakao Corp. subsidiary which services KakaoPage IPs in Japan, was ranked the No. 1 comic app in terms of both traffic and revenues in the Japanese market for the first time last month. With this achievement, KakaoPage and Piccoma have become No. 1 both in Korea, the birthplace of webtoons, and Japan, the homeland of manga. The annual GMV in these two countries alone is on track to soon surpass one trillion Korean Won.

Lee also unveiled KakaoPage's next corporate vision as a global story entertainment company. It will utilize the Korean and Japanese markets as springboards to provide a global distribution platform for the world's top storytellers to monetize their original stories. By securing hundreds of original stories proven on its global platform with adaptation potential into global movies, dramas and games, KakaoPage aims to become the most influential partner for global media entertainment companies and game developers.

To realize this vision, KakaoPage will continue to invest aggressively in order to expand its platform network beyond Korea and Japan into the U.S., China, and Southeast Asia by 2022. 

KakaoPage CEO Lee related, "I take great pride in the fact that KakaoPage globally pioneered the 'Wait-or-Pay' business model that has been the main driver of the explosive growth of the story entertainment market in Korea and Japan. I believe the next global blockbuster IPs such as the next Harry Potter or One Piece will originate from our webtoon platform and will gather global fandoms at an unprecedented pace and scale. Through this process, we can generate endless business opportunities with global media & entertainment partners. This is KakaoPage's next vision for innovating story entertainment."