Kakao's Piccoma goes live in France

Kakao began the service for its global webtoon platform Piccoma in France Thursday, local time. [KAKAO PICCOMA]

Kakao's Piccoma was made available in France Thursday, signaling the start of its “Beyond Korea” mission to expand internationally.

Piccoma is a webtoon service run by Kakao Piccoma, the Japanese webtoon subsidiary 75-percent owned by Kakao. It has been the No. 1 webtoon app in Japan since July 2020.

The French version will offer Korean webtoons as well as Japanese manga that have not been released in France. It will later pick up comics created by local authors and from other European countries.

The app was released on Google’s Play Store first. It will be made available on Apple iOS devices and PCs in the first half.

The app has been designed to best fit the culture and lifestyle of the French market through a French subsidiary named Piccoma Europe founded last September, according to Kakao Piccoma.

“The French digital comic market is growing at a fast rate and it’s known to have a high demand for Japanese manga,” the company said in a press release. “The popularity of Korean webtoons is also rising.”

Kakao Piccoma announced plans to begin launching in Europe as a part of Kakao’s “Beyond Korea” vision that the company revealed earlier this week.

"Beyond Korea" is Kakao's new 10-year-plan blueprint that will be led by Kim Beom-su, the company’s soon-to-be-former chairman. It will center around Kakao's entertainment subsidiaries, especially Kakao Piccoma.

Kakao’s other entertainment companies, especially Kakao Entertainment and Kakao Games, will also realign their businesses in accordance with the new slogan.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]