Kakao Pikoma, No. 1 in the Japanese webtoon market

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Second-quarter sales of $120 million

More than twice the number of Linemanga in second place.

Kakao's webtoon (online comics) platform Piccoma has begun to solidify its No. 1 position in the Japanese market. It surpassed $100 million in sales in the second quarter, more than doubling its rival Naver Line Manga. "If Line Manga fails to make a turnaround in the near future, the gap will widen," experts said.

According to App Annie, a global app data analysis company, Pikoma earned $120 million in sales from the two major app markets, including Google Play Store and Apple App Store, in the second quarter. It is well over double the level of Line Manga, which recorded $50 million. Pikoma has widened the gap since it surpassed sales of Line Manga in the third quarter of last year. At that time, Line Manga gave up its No. 1 position to Piccoma, which had been maintained since its release in 2013.

This is the result of Piccoma's failure to lower its offensive level even after it rose to the top. In May, Pikoma operator Kakao Japan attracted investment worth 600 billion won from Hong Kong-based private equity fund Anchor Equity Partners. Based on the money, Kakao Japan has expanded its business scope to various contents such as web novels and audio books, and has also strengthened its marketing by advertising TV.

Kakao's headquarters is also making all-out efforts to secure Japanese intellectual property rights (IP) to be introduced at Piccoma by investing in Japanese content company Kodakawa. Kakao is the largest shareholder of Kodakawa, with an 8.3 percent stake.

Experts point out that Naver doesn't have much time left. Jang Min-ji, a professor of media and video at Kyungnam University, said, "Just as Naver Webtoon has overtaken Daum Webtoon and consistently widened the gap, IP is concentrated on the popular platform," adding, "If Naver does not change the situation at an early date, it may miss the opportunity forever."

Naver is also preparing for a turnaround. Last month, Naver launched "Line Manga 2.0," which advanced artificial intelligence recommended for personalization. By using 'Mobile First' strategy in earnest this year, it has also introduced webtoon contents and episode-oriented serialization method. It is also seeking to acquire Munpia, a Korean web novel platform. Munpia has a number of fantasy genre IPs suitable for Japanese consumers' tastes.