Wattpad and Webtoon Merge Studio Divisions, Parent Company Commits $100M in Production Financing

Wattpad, a top user-contributed fiction app, is combining its TV, film and books division with the studio operations of digital comics platform Webtoon.

The new division has more than 100 TV and film projects in development or production with partners around the world, as well as a slate of books and international imprints.

“We’re bringing a new era of diverse voices and incredible IP to audiences and an industry looking for both,” Levitz said in a statement.

Previously, Wattpad worked with Netflix on the movie adaptation of “The Kissing Booth,” based on the story Beth Reekles first wrote on Wattpad.

Books in the queue include the first volume of Rachel Smythe’s Webtoon graphic novel series, “Lore Olympus,” to be published by Penguin Random House in October 2021.

The company plans to grow its teams by 50% in 2021, expecting to hire nearly 100 staff in engineering, marketing, content and other areas.

Naver, founded in 1999, operates Korea’s leading search engine and largest e-commerce platform.

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