Naver Webtoon shares up nearly 10% after Nasdaq listing


Naver Webtoon was listed on the Nasdaq Thursday and according to pundits it made an impressive debut.
Lee Seung-jae explains.

Nearly 20 years ago, South Korea’s leading portal site Naver, launched its webtoon service in South Korea.
And since then, webtoons have emerged as one of the most popular forms of comics around the world, with 170 million people from 150 countries enjoying Naver’s webtoon service.
Fast forward to June 27, 2024, Naver Webtoon launched on the Nasdaq on the U.S. stock market.
After trading started, the price of a single Naver Webtoon share traded at 21 dollars and 30 cents, higher than the upper end of the marketed range.
The U.S. initial public offering raised 315 million U.S. dollars after the first day of trading saw its share price rise 9-point-5 percent.
Closing at a final trading price of 23 dollars, the market cap has risen to 2-point-9 billion U.S. dollars, higher than the company’s initial first-day target of 2-point-7 billion dollars.
The growing popularity of Korean webtoons has also seen stories recreated into drama series and movies.
Experts predict that the webtoon industry will grow into a 60-billion-dollar business by 2030.
With the platform easily accessible on smartphones, the vertically-scrolled format makes it an easy, quick read for many users.
Naver’s webtoons are available in ten different languages, as its popularity expands globally.
Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.

Source : Arirang TV, https://www.arirang.com/news/view?id=272565
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