LINE Manga eyes expansion into Japan’s webtoon market

Kim Shin-bae, CEO of LINE Digital Frontier (LDF), explains the achievements of LINE Manga at the LDF headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, on the 12th. (Naver Webtoon)

LINE Manga, a cartoon app in Japan managed by Naver Webtoon, a webtoon platform owned by South Korean internet giant Naver Corp., aims not only to digitize existing comics but to create the future of manga, according to Kim Shin-bae. Kim is the chief executive officer of LINE Digital Frontier Corp. (LDF), the operator of LINE Manga.

Kim shared this vision during a press conference held on Wednesday at LDF’s headquarters in Tokyo, Japan.

LINE Manga has risen to become the top manga platform in Japan, the birthplace of manga. In the country, where print comics have long been dominant, the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the rise of digital comics.

The digital manga market totaled 483 billion yen ($3.16 billion) as of 2023, accounting for 70 percent of the entire manga industry.

LINE Manga, the Japanese service of Naver Webtoon, ranked first in non-gaming app revenue in Japan’s two major app markets in the fourth quarter of 2024.

According to market research firm Sensor Tower, LINE Manga held a 51 percent share of the webtoon market as of January 2025.

The key to LINE Manga’s success lies in optimizing its service to help Japanese readers, who are used to traditional manga volumes, adapt to the webtoon format. It also secured a vast content library by heavily investing in Japan’s local creative ecosystem.

Since Kim took office in 2021, the scroll-based webtoon format has been systematically introduced to Japan, marking the beginning of LINE Manga’s rapid growth.

Expanding content to include unfamiliar genres in Japan, such as martial arts and palace romance, has also helped attract diverse fan bases. Additionally, LINE Manga actively discovers and nurtures local artists via its amateur creator platform, “Indies.”

A notable success story is “Senpai is an Otokonoko,” which has surpassed 200 million views. Discovered through Indies, it was adapted into an anime in 2024 and will be released as a theatrical film this month.

The process of adapting popular LINE Manga titles into dramas and animations is also gaining momentum.

Expanding intellectual property (IP) through anime and other media strengthens existing fan bases and attracts new users.

Japanese-style anime, in particular, has the potential to captivate a global audience.

“In 2022, only one title from LINE Manga was adapted into video content, but the number increased to 12 in 2024,” Kim said. “We plan to launch 20 animation projects in 2025.”

LINE Manga will also invest directly in local studios from this year onwards to further expand its content offerings. LDF acquired shares in Studio No. 9, which produced the LINE Manga original webtoon, “Savior of Divine Blood,” that recorded 170 million cumulative views, in January 2025.

Kim hinted at further expansion, saying, “There are many studios in Japan, and we are exploring both collaborations and investment opportunities.”

“We will continue to review further investments,” he said.