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Digital Publishers No. 9, LINE Digital Frontier Forge Capital & Business Alliance

Digital publishing company No. 9 announced on Thursday that it has entered a capital and business alliance with LINE Digital Frontier as of December 23, with the aim to strengthen the company's original manga IP production system and overseas expansion.

With the capital and business alliance, No. 9 and LINE Digital Frontier will operate the LINE Manga app and the ebookjapan e-book sales service. Both companies also aim to achieve sustained growth and accelerate global expansion for their original webtoons and manga series.

No. 9 was founded in 2016 producing original manga IP, and started its webtoon business in 2022 with the launch of Shunji Etō and silou's Savior of Divine Blood Draw Out the Last 0.00000001% to Rise to the Top (Shinketsu no Kyūseishu: 0.00000001% o Hikiate Saikyō e) on Line Webtoon, followed by Etō and Kenta Tsuchida's Ore Dake Saikyō Chōetsu-sha ~Zen Sekai no Cheat Shishō ni Mitomerareta~ (I Am the Strongest Transcendent). Both works are distributed in six languages including ​​Korean, English, Traditional Chinese, French, Thai, and Indonesian, through Naver Webtoon's global platform. Both works also ranked in the LINE Manga 2024 Rankings Top 10.

Other manga titles that No. 9 publishes include Kappi's Hidarikiki no Eren, Perico's Fifteen Minutes Before We Really Date, Kotatsu's NEET Kunoichi to Nazeka Dōsei Hajimemashita (I’m Living with an Otaku NEET Kunoichi!?), and Ukiuki Chisato's Scrumper.

Jun-Koo Kim, CEO of WEBTOON Entertainment and Naver Webtoon, stated, “Efforts to establish Japan's creative ecosystem have driven the solid growth of our business in Japan and the production of hit titles. Through this expanded partnership, we expect to bring more competitive works, like Savior of Divine Blood, to readers worldwide.”

This marks Webtoon Entertainment's first investment in a Japanese studio focused on webtoon production.

Sources: PR Times, Naver Webtoon's website, Comic Natalie