Korean toons in Hindi and Telugu? If you thought that sounds as absurd as eating kimchi with masala dosa or khichdi, think again. It all started with ‘Gangnam Style’ in 2012. Then came the pandemic and the resulting OTT craze that added to the popularity of K-culture in India. Be it music, TV shows or films, the Korean Wave is booming like never before. If you are not yet satiated with Korean shows such as Vincenzo, Stranger, Extracurricular, and more on Netflix, and are craving something different, you are in luck. Kross Komics has launched the first-of-its-kind webtoon app in the Indian market, which brings the newest way of storytelling. Aimed at the 15-24 age group, the webtoons or digital comics will be in English, Hindi and Telugu.
Hyunwoo Thomas Kim, a South Korean investment banker-turned-film producer, who launched the platform under Kross Pictures—a multinational film and production company—says, “While our content creation happens in Korea, our aim is to localise it as much as possible. After all, a majority of the platform’s traffic comes from Tier-I and Tier-II cities. Also, we believe that compelling stories can work anywhere in the world. We have tied up with a lot of local translators and work with them regularly to ensure our content reaches people of all regions and dialects.” The platform has as many as nine available genres—Action, Romance, Drama, Comedy, Fantasy, Horror, Slice of Life, Mystery and Thriller. “Our most read title is She Hates Me. It boasts over 20 percent readership,” adds the founder.
Webtoons are mobile-optimised graphic novels that are great ‘snackable reading’ material targeting mostly female consumers. Not to be confused with its more popular cousin—Japanese Manga—webtoons have three distinct characteristics. They are made specifically for smartphones, are read vertically and are full of colour. Even though as a concept they may be very new to the Indian audience, the feedback, so far, has been extremely encouraging. It has already registered 3.5 million downloads. The makers are not surprised as they felt that the potential was always there with the popularity of K-culture among the youth in India, not to mention the success of Korean films remade in India—Jazbaa, Teen, Bharat, to name a few.
Needless to say, the webtoons platform is gung-ho about the future. “Our aim has always been to onboard most of (if not all) the local languages in India. Marathi might be the next language we will look at. We plan to cross the six million-mark this year and simultaneously increase our daily active users to over a million. We believe that the next big K-wave will be webtoons,” says Kim. Besides, the brand also recently forayed into the gaming sector. Kross Komics realised that the Indian gaming industry had similar market conditions as Korea, and so as a company, it made sense to transition to that platform too. They collaborated with Reliance Jio and MX Player, and have already launched about 20 games. It is another segment that they are looking to expand in. Looks like the Korean Wave is getting stronger.
The Top 5
● She Hates Me
● The Great Wish
● The Witch of Mine
● Airplanes
● This Villainess Wants a Divorce!