"Young People=WEBTOON," WEBTOON Partners with Korean Food Companies to Capture the Thai Market
- WEBTOON, the world's No. 1 webcomic platform with the largest MZ users, is increasingly collaborating with domestic and international brands targeting younger users.
- WEBTOON, the leading entertainment partner for K-Culture, joins Korean food brands’ pop-up store in Thailand... WEBTOON's exclusive brand event this past weekend was also a huge hit with fans.
- At WEBTOON Brand Day, 17 local creators from Thailand were invited, and "Toon Filter," a real-time WEBTOON character conversion technology, was introduced.
Many companies are joining with WEBTOON, the world's No. 1 storytech platform, to target the younger generation.
WEBTOON, as an entertainment partner representing K-culture, has joined major Korean food companies in the Boggle Boggle K-Ramyun Pop-up Store, a pop-up store promoting Korean instant noodles, which has been ongoing at Siam Discovery, a large shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand, since the 24th of last month. While global entertainment companies such as Discord, Riot Games, Ubisoft, DC, Marvel, and others are looking to expand their IPs to younger users through collaborations with WEBTOON, Korean companies expanding overseas are also actively working with WEBTOON to target younger consumers in overseas markets.
WEBTOON has been offering the Thai language service "LINE WEBTOON" since November 2014. According to data.ai, a mobile app market data analysis platform, LINE WEBTOON is Thailand's number one webcomic platform in terms of revenue and monthly active users.
Jeong-A Kim, Vice President of Innocean, who coordinated the pop-up store event, explained the reason for the partnership, saying, "Since this pop-up store is an event promoting Korean ramen, it was essential to collaborate with LINE WEBTOON to attract younger customers who are leading the trend of eating out in Thailand."
WEBTOON decorated the pop-up store with the characters from the original Thai WEBTOON IPs and had five popular Thai WEBTOON creators make a special webcomic introducing Korean ramen and the pop-up store. A total of five Thai WEBTOONS, namely , , , , and , were featured in the special webcomic, providing an introduction to Korean instant noodles and recipes, a schedule of brand events for each product, and benefits for visiting the store.
A large number of WEBTOON fans attended "WEBTOON Brand Day," an exclusive event held by WEBTOON (LINE WEBTOON) last weekend, proving the popularity of WEBTOON in Thailand.
The WEBTOON Brand Day offered a variety of events for Thai fans, including the Toon Filter (formerly known as WebtoonMe), which allows you to convert yourself into a WEBTOON character in real-time, a flea market with 17 Thai creators, a photo zone with life-size cutouts of WEBTOON characters, a gift giveaway event, and sales of coin cards to view paid episodes on the WEBTOON platform.
Among them, Toon Filter, which allows you to become a WEBTOON character, was extremely popular. Developed by WEBTOON, Toon Filter is a feature that uses deep learning technology to convert your image into a WEBTOON character in real-time. At the end of February, the company unveiled a demo version named "WebtoonMe" at DEVIEW, Korea's largest developer conference.
WEBTOON presented a total of three filter experience services to Thai fans, including the popular Korean titles and , and the Thai title < I'm the Most Beautiful Count>, and also made printouts of the results. Visitors were excited to experience a new way to get into the world of WEBTOON, and there was a long line to try the Toon Filter at one point.
The creator of , Arisaraparkote, who attended the event, said, "I was surprised that so many people came to experience WEBTOON, and it was wonderful to meet enthusiastic readers in person."
A representative from WEBTOON said, "As the popularity of WEBTOON titles increases globally, the competitiveness of WEBTOON, the world's No. 1 global webcomic platform with a large and growing number of young users, is becoming more prominent."