Kakao establishes Tapas Entertainment after Radish Media and Tapas Media merger

Kakao Entertainment Corp., a South Korean entertainment, mass media, and publishing company, just established Tapas Entertainment to scale up the expansion of its content businesses in the North American region.

According to The Korea Herald, Tapas Entertainment was launched following the merger deal between Radish Media web novel company and Tapas Media webtoon platform that is based in North America. The merger was completed on Aug. 5, and Kakao Entertainment subsequently announced the entrance of Tapas Entertainment into the content business sector.

It was in May of last year when Kakao Entertainment acquired both Radish and Tapas Media. The company had to wait for the completion of the merger before it could take the next step for the launch of Tapas Entertainment and be able to enter the global market starting in North America.

Kakao will bank on the growing popularity of Korean webtoons overseas and release its webtoon and web-based novel content to various markets outside of South Korea. The company revealed it had already started working with more or less 100,000 content creators in North America. These people were mostly working with Radish Media and Tapas Media prior to the merger.

Kakao Entertainment owns around 10,000 original intellectual properties in Tapas Entertainment. The firm said that 70% of sales from its newly-established company come from less than one percent of its own IP.

“Through the merger, North America’s most premium digital storytelling platforms - Tapas, Radish and Wuxiaworld - have come together,” Tapas Entertainment co-chief executive officer, Kim Chang Won, said in a statement. “We expect the collaboration between the highest level of IP spectrum secured through the merger and the mass partnership with local creators to not only expand our global readership size but also create synergy with North American entertainment businesses.”

It should be noted that Wuxiaworld is a subsidiary of Tapas Media and operates as a platform for Asian fantasy fiction content. Finally, Korea Joongang Daily reported that Kakao bought Radish and Tapas Media for $960 million in 2021.