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With its global leadership in TV, music and movies, South Korea’s entertainment industry is gearing up for another huge capital infusion.
KakaoEntertainmentacross Hallyu, web comics and online storytelling, announced Thursday that it has raised $966 million (1.2 trillion won) through a bond issue subscribed to by sovereign wealth funds, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Singapore’s GIC.
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The move comes after Hybe Corp. (formerly Big Hit) goes public in 2021, injecting cash into CJ ENM TV streaming platform Naver unveils massive new production centers CJ ENM Studios and SLL (JTBC and J Contentree) and multiple Initiatives to establish international distribution by Korean Web comic platform.
Kakao Entertainment, the unlisted subsidiary of South Korean tech giant Kakao Corp., was formed in 2021 from the merger of webtoon publisher Kakao Page and Kakao M, a cluster of music and television production platforms.These include Baram Pictures and BH Entertainment, Starship Entertainment (one of the largest talent management companies in Korea) and Filmmaker Zip Cinema. Kakao Entertainment also operates Melon, South Korea’s leading music streaming service.
With the latest funding, Kakao Entertainment said it plans to further its international expansion and make more investments and acquisitions. In a statement announcing the new investment, Kakao Entertainment said it intends to use the proceeds to build its storytelling capabilities and intellectual property in North America.
“This demonstrates the global competitiveness and future growth potential of Kakao Entertainment’s unique intellectual property (IP) value chain, which spans multiple categories in the entertainment industry,” said Bae Jae-hyun, chief investment officer at Kakao. Bae also lauded the company’s ability to raise capital of this magnitude at a time when the global recession is teetering on the brink.
Bae said he expects half of the proceeds to be used to grow the company’s existing global businesses of stories, IP and music, and the other half for mergers and acquisitions.
web comics, Emerged about 20 years ago with the widespread adoption of smartphones, has become the basis for dozens of hit Korean and international TV dramas. Examples include Netflix’s “We Are All Dead” and “Itaewon Classroom” and AppleTV+’s “The Doctor.” Brain” and Disney+’s upcoming “Moving.”
Kakao Entertainment already owns US webcomic platform Tapas, serial fiction app Radish and fantasy platform Wuxiaworld.
Radish, Wattpad and other online novel platforms (Acquired by South Korean tech rival Naver 2021) has also spawned IPs with established fan bases that have been adapted into films and TV series, including Netflix originals “A Través de Mi Ventana”, “The Kissing Booth” and “After” from Nostromo Pictures.
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