Panorama Entertainment announced today that it has launched a joint venture with leading Chinese game developer Changyou to create “Changmica” a new platform for Korean webtoons.
Panorama describes itself as a transmedia company, a concept that involves telling stories across multiple platforms and media. Through Changmica, the company will publish Korean webtoons on Chinese portal sites from its subsidiary Comica which was launched in May last year. Then, Panorama and Changyou will take popular titles and turn them into video content and games respectively.
Panorama says that it expects the combination of Changyou and Comica, which has been experiencing rapid growth, will develop Changmica into the leading platform for Korean webtoons in China within a short space of time.
“Through the establishment of the joint venture, we’ve set a goal of generating 1 trillion won in revenue by creating at least three hit titles,” said Kim Young-wook, CEO of Panorama Entertainment.
Korean webtoons have recently become popular in China, and Changmica plans to target this market through localization. As the number of smartphone users has surged in China, the growth of the webtoon market in China is expected to grow even further. Last year the number of Chinese webtoon viewers grew to around 100 million, five times the number recorded in 2013, with more than a thousand new titles being released every month.
