Global Media: What Happens When AI meets proven IP? An evergreen pipeline for big media

We recently met with Webtoon (WBTN) management (not covered, majority owned by Naver), a leading global webcomic and web novel platform underscoring a growing strategic imperative for Big Media: securing a scalable pipeline of proven, adaptable IP as audiences become increasingly diverse, global, and segmented. As AI increasingly enables the conversion of comics—still images—into animation and eventually, live-action TV and movies, platforms like Webtoon could become important content incubators for Big Media. Beyond accelerating content creation and lowering production costs, AI may also help expand the economic viability of country/culture-specific, language-specific, and niche content that traditional production models have struggled to support. Webtoon is the world's largest webcomic platform, with a vast library of user-validated stories that provides a unique foundation for downstream content development and monetization. It is testing AI to transform static comics into animated