The company said Big Hit Entertainment offered the story featuring the seven members for the 16-episode webtoon.
Click to See Naver BTS webtoon “Save Me”
“We expect the webtoon utilizing BTS members, who have gained explosive popularity globally, to offer a totally new experience to readers,” an official from Naver Webtoon said.
Line Friends, the character merchandising unit of Line, Naver’s subsidiary in Japan, also collaborated with BTS members to release BT21 ― a collection of characters created by BTS members and related merchandise.
BT21 is being sold in Line Friends flagship stores in Korea as well as stores abroad in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United States. Global fans have also rushed to online shopping malls to buy BTS items, according to the firm.
Netmarble, one of the leading game firms, plans to release “BTS World” this year, hoping to reinvigorate its sluggish performance.
“We aim to release BTS World in the global market within the first half of the year,” a Netmarble official said.
The game, which uses more than 100 video clips and 10,000 images of the boy band, allows users to nurture a BTS member in the game.
Expectations of the success of the game in North America have been raised especially after the iconic seven-member boy band was named “Top Social Artist” for the second year in a row at last year’s Billboard Music Awards, beating out Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato and Shawn Mendes.
Telecom companies are also active in utilizing K-pop stars in their new businesses.
SK Telecom, the nation’s top mobile carrier, signed an agreement with SM Entertainment to push its next-generation media business during one of the world’s largest IT tradeshows, the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas earlier this month.
At the two firms’ joint booth, visitors could meet a member of NCT 127 in virtual reality (VR) with a head-mounted VR device.
LG Uplus released a mobile application in October offering diverse video content of K-pop performances.
The app has been offered only to users in Korea for now, but the firm said it is also considering releasing it on the world market in a bid to better respond to the global popularity of K-pop.
Source: Naver Webtoon, The Korea Times