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Naver's webtoon arm partners with BOOM! Studios, Disney in North American push

Published: 09 Oct. 2025, 15:53

YOON SO-YEON
[email protected]

Anime and webtoon fans line up to participate in Naver's webtoon entertainment booth at LA Anime Expo 2025 at Los Angeles Convention Center in July. [NAVER WEBTOON]

Naver's web content arm is accelerating its global expansion through collaborations with major production studios, with a particular focus on attracting the large comic-reading population in the North American market.

Webtoon Entertainment, the U.S. subsidiary of Naver specializing in webtoons and web novels, recently partnered up with U.S. graphic novel company BOOM! Studios to load their content on the Webtoon platform. BOOM! Studios' best-selling comic book series "Something is Killing the Children" (2019-) has sold over 5 million copies as of September.

Also last month, Webtoon Entertainment announced its partnership with Walt Disney Company to jointly develop a new online comics platform that will allow readers to enjoy Disney's vast archive of comics.

More than 35,000 comics from Marvel, Star Wars, Disney, Pixar and 20th Century Studios will be available in a single digital comics service that the two companies will develop. A hundred Disney works will be turned into scroll-down webtoons.

Stock prices for Webtoon Entertainment soared on the U.S. Nasdaq market on Sept. 16 with the news of its collaboration. It closed at a peak of $21.31 per share on Sept. 19, almost recovering to the $22.83 per share price when it first went public on June 28, 2024.

Webtoon Entertainment will participate in the New York Comic Con "with its biggest appearance to date," featuring premium giveaways, exclusive merchandise and creator signings, according to the company. This year's Comic Con takes place from Thursday through Sunday.

The first 30,000 fans to visit the booth will receive a free tote bag featuring characters from Naver Webtoon, Marvel, Star Wars and more. Details are available on Webtoon Entertainment's website.

BY YOON SO-YEON [[email protected]]