[Infostock Daily= Reporter An Hoe Hyun] Meritz Securities predicted on the 22nd that NAVER will take a leap forward as a global story platform by acquiring the world's largest web novel platform, 'Wattpad'.
NAVER announced the acquisition of Wattpad on the 20th. With the acquisition of Wattpad, it has 160 million global users(72 million Naver webtoon + 90 million Wattpad).
Wattpad is an open social story platform established in Canada in 2006. As of last year, it has 1 billion stories and 90 million monthly users.
"We will raise the corporate value of NAVER Webtoon to 8 trillion won from the previous 7.3 trillion won," the company analyzed, adding, "However, the acquisition funds are paid in cash or own shares, so the short-term impact on the overall valuation is limited."
The company then explained, "It is necessary to raise the outlook for the global growth of mid- to long-term NAVER webtoons and the derivative value created through web novel intellectual property rights(IP)."
Reporter An Hoe Hyun ahh@infostock.co.kr
