Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Inc. (TBS) has reached an agreement with South Korea’s market-leading digital comics platform NAVER WEBTOON, a subsidiary of the country’s largest ICT company NAVER, along with Japanese manga production company SHINE Partners, to launch Studio TooN, a new webtoon production company in South Korea as a joint venture of three companies.

With this new venture, TBS aims not only to enter the webtoon production business, but also to enhance its offering of content aimed at global audiences, by developing original webtoons with Japanese and Korean creators, and adapting them into TV dramas, anime and other content.

Studio TooN is the first group company established by TBS in South Korea.

TBS Television President Takashi Sasaki commented on the establishment of the new company, “As we take on the challenge of entering the emerging field of webtoons, we are grateful for the cooperation of NAVER WEBTOON, the leading webtoon company in South Korea, and indeed the world, and of the pioneering Japanese company SHINE Partners. Going forward, the world can also look forward to exciting new webtoon-based video content from TBS.”

Kim Junkoo, CEO and founder of NAVER WEBTOON, said, ” When webtoon works are visualized, there is a synergy effect as the number of readers increases. We are delighted to be partnering with TBS, Japan’s leading content production company. We look forward to working together to develop diverse webtoons even further.”

Studio TooN will be headed by Keita Iwamoto, President of SHINE Partners.

Webtoons constitute a rapidly expanding market, not only in their native South Korea, but also in Europe, the United States, and Southeast Asia. Providing the source material for many of the Korean TV dramas now taking the world by storm, they have already proved highly popular in their own right.

Projected outline of the new company Studio TooN

Studio TooN is scheduled to be established in May 2022, and to begin operations in June 2022. Its head office will be in Seoul, South Korea, and its CEO will be Keita Iwamoto. Its main business will be the planning, development, production, and copyright management of webtoons.