Manta is another big Korean name in webtoon scene in North America

[Source: RIDI]

Naver Webtoon and Kakao Webtoon are not the only Korean digital comics that are big in North America, with Korea contents provider RIDI’s English-service digital comics platform Manta achieving app download milestone of 3 million in just eight months of service in November by riding on the burgeoning infatuation with Korean original contents and digital graphics by English viewers around the world.

Manta topped digital comics rank on Google Play Store in just four months since launch in March and in November celebrated 3 million downloads, according to RIDI.

The company attributed its rich library of exclusive works in various genre, successful localization and reasonable and affordable subscription policies to its success in North America.

Manta provides a huge pool of novel-to-comics adaptations. It has expanded its content lineup by providing English-translated webtoons based on top-selling digital novels on RIDI. These ‘novel comics’ are one of the major success drivers of Manta.

[Source: RIDI]

Manta’s most popular series “Under the Oak Tree,” based on the same name romance fantasy novel, has built up a strong legion of avid fans. It has appealed to many North American readers tired of hero series while wowing them with immersive illustrations.

Another winning strategy has been its adoption of monthly subscription policy as the first in digital comics. The subscription-based pricing allows customers to engage in binge reading of their favorite series without having to make payment each time.

[Source: RIDI]

Based on its confidence in readership pool in America, Manta joined the 2021 San Diego Comic-Con Special Edition from Nov. 26-28 to dive deeper into comic fandom. The Comic-Con is the world’s biggest comic book and multi-genre entertainment event, drawing hundreds of thousands of fans around the world. Manta set up an “Under the Oak Tree”-themed booth to join the event as the only Korean content platform. Global fans visited the booth to take photos with models who dressed up as main characters of the webtoon and enjoy the exhibition.

On the first day of the show, the company hosted a panel discussion session on the subject of ‘the global rise of K-webtoon.’ As a global webtoon platform, it had a vigorous debate about the competitiveness of Korean contents and growth of the digital comics market largely driven by Korean names.

[Source: RIDI]

Manta plans to feed exclusive offerings in a wide range of genre including romance fantasy, thriller and drama, and reinforce promotional efforts in the market. Based on a strong foothold in North America, it plans to tap other language markets.

RIDI’s 10-year-long experience in strengthening content business has propelled Manta’s global outreach. RIDI, founded as an e-book service platform, has been expanding offerings to digital novels, webtoon and animations to create synergy among the content. It has also produced original sound tracks (OST) or promotional videos of popular series to expand the use of IPs.

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