Two South Korean tech companies are borrowing mobile games to shake up – and gain the upper hand – Japan’s stormy manga industry, a plot twist that has expanded the comics’ fanbase to a new generation of fans -reading.
Backed by tech giants Kakao Corp and Naver Corp., Piccoma and Line Manga have grown into Japan’s top mobile apps outside of games. Such online manga platforms are very popular during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Piccoma’s third-quarter trade takes more than three times year-over-year to 11.6 billion yen ($ 110m), amplifying a wave of online manga sales that have already seen digital printing in industry manga $ 5bn Japan.
Line Manga, now run by internet business SoftBank Z Holdings, saw trade volume jump a third to 8.2 billion yen ($ 76.9m) in the same period. Naver declined an interview request.
Piccoma overtook Line Manga to become Apple’s flagship manga app last year on iOS and Android. Its increase can be traced back to 2016 when it introduced a revenue model called “zero yen if you wait”.
The app’s manga stories – from classroom love stories to supernatural horror – are serviced. Users have to wait for a timer to unlock the next installment, or pay for a readout.
Inspired by smartphone games that have free play but no additional content, the approach marked a radical departure from the usual model of selling manga volume above all prices. $ 4- $ 6.
“We thought if we could capture 5 percent or 10 percent of the big games market it would drive growth,” said Yukiko Sugiyama, senior manager in Japan’s Kakao business strategy division.
Readers, who are eager to find out what happens next, often pay. The business model has evolved as dozens of booksellers, tech companies and publishers rushed to offer their own apps.
Paper sales fell
Megumi, a 34-year-old office worker in western Japan, said she read 20 pages or so of a manga on her phone at lunchtime, and turned to both apps while locked at home. taking care of children during last year’s pandemic. emergency.
She became “addicted” to and paid for Line Manga’s famous series, True Beauty, about a young woman whose production skills are very popular with men.
The strip began in Korea, where the rise of the internet led to a drop in newspaper sales, and was replaced by fully-developed comics on smartphones.
Manga apps offer a huge back catalog of exclusive titles and strips.
“You can read a manga carrying just your smartphone – it’s useful,” said Kana Misaki, a 36-year-old care worker living in Tokyo who reads manga “extensively” through apps.
In Japan, online manga is usually still turned into a book, and traditional publishers are a powerful force, with editors closely involved in all stages of production.
Printed on cheap paper in black and white, paper manga is still affordable and disposable. The business is protected under Japanese law from selling books for less than their cover price, even online. “For new titles, paper sales are much higher,” said Shu Hashimoto, editor of Kodansha publisher Shonen Weekly Magazine.
Even the most advanced app users say they buy paper editions of their favorite titles.
“You don’t know when titles have gone from the apps, so when I want them nearby I buy them,” Misaki said.