Asia’s Sleeping Tiger, Awakened: Indonesian Webtoon Market

Webtoon (웹툰), a type of digital comic, originating from South Korea, has been gaining popularity ever since its release. Due to its “snack-culture” format optimized for smartphones, it has been the go-to form of entertainment, especially for busy people. With its popularity, it is no mystery that it caught the attention of consumers all over the world and Indonesia is no exception. The Indonesian webtoon market is the biggest in Southeast Asia.

Indonesian Webtoon, Manga, and Manhwa Market

Naver and Kakao, two of the biggest webtoon companies in South Korea, have been facing battles ever since they entered the Southeast Asian webtoon market. With Indonesia, Thailand, and Taiwan as the biggest consumers of webtoon in SEA countries, it shouldn’t be a question of whether you should expand to those countries but a question of how. This year, Naver webtoon garnered more than 12 million average users for their app in those three countries. Indonesia alone covered more than half of those numbers which makes Indonesia the biggest market in all of Southeast Asia.

Indonesian Webtoon Translation

During the 80s, one of the biggest publishers in Indonesia, Elex Publishing, started translating manga in Bahasa Indonesia. Due to popular manga getting translated into their native language, this expanded the market not only for Indonesian webtoon but also international titles as well. Popular manga such as Candy Candy, Dragon Ball, and Doraemon getting licensed from Japanese to Bahasa Indonesia translation became a huge stepping stone for the market to grow globally.

The Indonesian webtoon market started expanding ever since Elex Publishing released their first translated manga. The biggest difference between a manga versus their local comics is the book binding. Traditionally, manga is read from right to left. However, in Indonesia, comics follow a left to right western binding format. To cater this, the publishing company decided to bind the manga in a western style instead of following the usual way to slowly introduce the literature to their consumers. Overtime, with more Indonesian licensed manga titles for translation, they have changed the book binding to match the original source.

Once people get used to a new culture, they will look for similar ones. Just like with manga, manhwa, and webtoon became more in demand due to manga readers branching out to other types of similar literature from different cultures. With more Indonesians open to the world of manga, naturally, it spilled over to manhwa and webtoon. Forty years later, the Indonesian webtoon market is the biggest in Southeast Asia.

Korean Webtoons get translated from Korean to Bahasa Indonesian due to demand. It usually starts with fan translations and scanlations until they release the official translation. And since the access isn’t a one-way street, a lot of Indonesian webtoons get translated from Bahasa Indonesia into English, Korean, and even Japanese. This phenomenon manifested the growth of the webtoon market not just in Indonesia, but worldwide as well.

We cannot deny on how popular manga, manhwa, and webtoon have gotten throughout the years. With diverse consumers, it has also brought in a huge wave of creators who are willing to share their stories to the world. With popular webtoon apps such as Naver and Kakao, it’s not impossible to create your own, with a guarantee that someone will stumble upon your work. However, it should not stop there. One way of reaching through your readers’ hearts is through language. If your work is translated into multiple languages with a huge number of users, then it will surely reach the audience you’re trying to connect with. So, go global with CCCI.

Reaching Global Heights through Indonesian Webtoon Translation with CCCI

Translation is a powerful tool that connects people all over the world. Through it, we understand the people who don’t speak the same language as us. This is the reason why literature such as manga, manhwa, and completed webtoon became popular worldwide. The stories and culture exchange through accurate translation and localization.

Sometimes, a great deal of tiny details and nuances get lost in translation due to cultural differences and language limitations. With CCCI, that will not be a hindrance. We follow a multi-step process, ensuring that your project will be organized and accurate, as well as maintaining the creativity of the original work. Our team of professional creative translators partnered up with our native speakers guarantee that we will cover all bases for your every need.

CCCI is here to create a story with you. You can choose to translate your works into more than 30 languages all over the world. We support languages from the biggest webtoon markets such as Korean, Japanese, English, Chinese, and Bahasa Indonesia. We can even translate it to and from the aforementioned languages such as:

Bahasa Indonesia to Korean
Korean to Bahasa Indonesia
Bahasa Indonesia to English
English to Bahasa Indonesia

We are a one-stop shop for all of your webtoon needs. CCCI also offers animation services, and typesetting services for manga, manhwa, webtoon, and comics. Proper typesetting for your work is crucial if you want your readers to be much more immersed while reading. Translation and typesetting goes hand in hand in webtoon.

Breakthrough the barriers with CCCI!