Contents First

Contents First is not just the company behind Tappytoon. It is one of the more credible examples of a Korean story business that pushed beyond simple platform distribution and built a broader IP stack around translation, publishing, merchandising, studio operations, and global audience management. That matters because plenty of companies can launch an app. Far fewer can turn that app into durable infrastructure.

The scale story is real. Official company materials frame Tappytoon as a global reading platform that has reached millions of users across more than 200 countries since launching in 2016, while the wider company has kept expanding through webnovels, studio work, and adjacent commerce. The REDICE-linked REDICE STUDIO joint venture and the continued push around multilingual publishing show that Contents First is thinking beyond one hit platform or one language market.

For HITKULTR, Contents First matters because it sits in the same export conversation as companies like Naver Webtoon, but with a tighter operator story and a clearer premium-reader focus. It represents the part of Korean IP infrastructure that turns webtoon fandom into repeatable long-tail business.