Naver invests 40 billion Won in CJ ENM'S OTT platform TVING; Becomes second largest shareholder

Naver will be able to develop intellectual property rights (IP) images for webtoons and web novels, and TVING will be able to secure original content and accelerate globalization.

By Pinkvilla Desk

Updated on Jul 08, 2021 | 05:45 PM IST | 551K

TVING's official logo; courtesy of TVING

On June 30, CJ ENM announced that Naver invested 40 billion Won in equity in its subsidiary, TVING. With this, Naver secured a 15.4% stake in TVING, becoming the second largest shareholder of TVING after CJ ENM (70.5% stake). JTBC Studio (14.1% stake), which was the second largest shareholder, has since become the third-largest shareholder. Previously, Naver and CJ ENM signed a strategic partnership through an exchange of shares worth 150 billion Won in October last year. As part of that, they have already announced an investment plan for TVING. Since then, as the first collaboration case between TVING and Naver, a product that combines Naver Plus membership and TVING was launched in March.

Naver's investment in TVING was made to accelerate investment in original content, which is the key to success of OTT platforms.

CJ ENM, which has strengths in content planning and production capabilities, and Naver, which has various original intellectual property rights (IPs) such as webtoons and web novels, are planning to maximize synergy through TVING. In addition, by utilizing the overseas business capabilities of CJ ENM and Naver, they decided to actively cooperate with TVING's overseas expansion.

Yang Ji Eul, CEO of TVING, "In close cooperation with Naver, we will strengthen the influence of TVING Original by producing the best well-made content that can be used in the domestic as well as global market. Through aggressive investment, we plan to expand our content portfolio and strengthen services specialized for TV, such as providing customized content for each individual."