Nicknamed the Netflix of webtoon and manga, Piccoma, a subsidiary of the Korean giant Kakao, is conquering Europe by launching its comic book application under the name Piccoma Europe. Very popular with young people and millenials, this application is the first manga application in the world, number one in Japan, South Korea and other Asian countries. The first feedback on the French market seems to indicate that the success story is not ready to stop.
The webtoon ? But what is it?
Everyone knows the Manga which for more than 30 years has conquered the world thanks to a policy of Japanese soft power and has seen the this Japanese comic book, gain its letters of nobility in the same way as the American comics or the so-called Franco-Belgian comic book. But what is the webtoon that we hear more and more about in discussions.
Invented in South Korea, the webtoon, sometimes called smartoon, is none other than a full-color comic book, regardless of the country of creation, adapted to smartphone screens. Instead of turning the pages to read the story, the reader scrolls down the boxes on the screen of their cell phone. Webtoons are comics adapted to today's consumer tools, communication vectors and uses.
Piccoma, How does it work?
The Manga and webtoon app has not become number one in Japan and the world for nothing. It is ultra simple to use and within the reach of everyone. After downloading the app you will realize that it is ad-free and you can read many comics for free thanks to "Wait until Free". That is, to read once every 24H a chapter of your favorite manga for free.
All the first chapters of the webtoons uploaded on the app are free and if you don't want to wait 24H to read another chapter, you can buy the following chapters for 0.50 € or a whole tome for 5 € (between 5 and 7 chapters). Piccoma uses its own currency "the Coin" that you buy to buy chapters. And the more "coins" you buy the more chapters you can buy so your chapter could cost you much less than 0.50 €. Finally Piccoma has adopted the Fremium, that is to say the purchase by the act and will not offer a subscription.
You can of course like your favorite series, comment on them and even follow them by integrating them into the calendar and not miss any of the chapter releases.
What can you read on the platform?
You can read webtoons originating from Japan (Manga), South Korea (Manwha), Taiwan (Manhua), China (Manhua) and France. Piccoma does not deal directly with the authors for the moment and therefore does not offer the possibility to independent authors to be discovered. For France, one of the biggest comic book markets in the world, Piccoma deals with publishing houses, such as Kurokawa and Pika, which will be joined in the near future by other European houses.
For all genres and for all, the catalog already includes many famous series, including Fairy Tail, Edens Zero, SPY x FAMILY, SSS-Class Revival Hunter, Second Life Ranker! Enough to convince comic book fans reluctant to digital to try a new way of Reading comics, especially on public transport!
Don't hesitate to tell us in comments if you know of other webtoon platforms!