Webtoons and web novels from South Korea are expanding into the Southeast Asian market, driven by the popularity of Korean culture and content. Moving beyond merely translating and offering successful Korean webtoons, local writers and production companies are adapting these stories to resonate better with regional audiences.
The web novel “Marriage Over Love” from the Naver Series was recently reimagined as the webtoon “Our Secret Marriage” on the Indonesian version of Naver Webtoon in February. “Our Secret Marriage” is the seventh most popular webtoon overall and ranks top in the romance category. This is the first time a Korean web novel was adapted into a webtoon by an international author and introduced to local readers before it was released in Korea.
Naver Webtoon’s localization strategy has also been reaping significant rewards by introducing various locally created and adapted content. The webtoon “Pasutri Gaje” by Indonesian author Annisa Nisfihani was successfully made into a movie released in local cinemas last February. Naver Webtoon’s efforts to build a local content ecosystem through Canvas, a platform for amateur creators, are beginning to show tangible results. “The ecosystem has the potential to grow through a positive feedback loop where locally successful content is exported to other countries,” said an industry insider.
The number of webtoons published on Korean platforms adapted into TV drama series in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Taiwan is also growing. Naver’s original Thai webtoon “Summer Night” is set to be produced as a local drama and aired within this year. The Thai drama “Beauty Newbie”, based on Naver webtoon “My ID is Gangnam Beauty”, ranked number one spot on Southeast Asian online video service (OTT) Viu for four consecutive weeks until the last episode was aired last month.
Kakao Webtoon’s “Nth Love” will also be made into a drama series in Taiwan, with plans to air next year. Kakao has already seen success with webtoons such as “Itaewon Class”, “The Ideal Relationship”, and “A Business Proposal” which were turned into dramas in Taiwan, Thailand, and Hong Kong.
