Apple hopes comic startup helps revive its Reading app

The webtoon comic genre is receiving attention from many technology giants.

Last December, the Cupertino, California-based company signed an exclusive three-year deal with South Korean startup Kenaz to provide online comics in the webtoon genre.

The new content was first rolled out in Japan last month and will expand to the 51 countries where the Books app is available, Apple said. The value of the deal was not disclosed.

Webtoons are a popular way to consume digital comics in Korea and have inspired many popular works. Unlike regular comics, webtoon authors decide how much of the screen each panel takes up per scroll.

“Apple Books has the opportunity to quickly become a formidable competitor in this space where there is no real leader in North America,” said Woody Lee, founder and CEO of Kenaz.

Unlike Apple Music and Apple TV, the Apple Books app has not received new service updates for a long time due to lack of strong support from investors.

A Kenaz representative said that Apple has been eyeing webtoons as a potential additional portfolio for the past two years, before discussing details with the company.

The iPhone giant's decision to tap into the webtoon market reflects growing demand for the genre. The move follows Amazon's move in March to launch webtoons on Kindle for Japanese users.

In Asia, South Korea's Naver Corp and Kakao Corp are the biggest distributors of this service, while Chinese giants Tencent and ByteDance have also started pouring money into this race.

Explaining why Apple chose Kenaz over big names like Naver and Kakao - publishing companies with their own platforms, Lee said the reason was to ensure access to original content without conflicting with distributors.

Kenaz hopes to publish about 30% of its webtoons through Apple Books. The startup, which is home to about 140 authors, is valued at 86 billion won ($65 million).

The Vietnamnet