Kakao Entertainment Shuts Down Tapas Entertainment’s Korean Office

Tapas Entertainment’s Korean branch will close its doors in April.

As reported by Yonhap News Agency, Kakao Entertainment, the parent company of Tapas Entertainment, announced its intention to liquidate the Korean branch next month. Following the closing of Tapas’s Korean unit, Kakao Entertainment will absorb its marketing and platform management departments. According to an unnamed Kakao Entertainment official, this move is to “improve business efficiency and competitiveness.”

This news comes eight months after its mass lay-offs, where approximately 30 per cent of the workforce had been dismissed. According to Bleeding Cool, a number of high-ranking executives were also let go, including its CCO, CFO and Head of Publicity. At the same time, Tapas had also hired former DC editors Jamie S. Rich, Michele Wells, Alex Carr as its Editor-in-Chief, Chief Content Officer and Senior Director of Publisher Relations respectively. Tapas also hired former Marvel staff Chris Robinson for its Exclusives Partnership Manager. Rich left Tapas in May 2022.

Here in solidarity of @miqinviolin , the writer behind Sound of Bread, who was just incredibly disrespected by Tapas. Please read what she has to say and, if you'd like to give her some support, do so in her ko-fi (link below).https://t.co/OXXV61rkA5 pic.twitter.com/VyCHw9ImUQ
— norin🏳️‍🌈🇧🇷asking you || patreon (@noriyoukinky) March 2, 2023

In March 2023, miqin, the creator of Sound of Bread revealed her webcomic series would not receive a second season and would be cancelled, citing “drastic changes” Tapas went through after Kakao Entertainment’s acquisition. In her note to her readers, miqin also revealed Tapas sent a contract to cancel Season 1 along with Season 2, resulting in her making no profit from her published work. The creator announced her decision to no longer publish with the platform, saying “The thought of updating on Tapas literally makes me feel sick.”

Founded in 2012, Tapas Media is one of the leading platforms for webcomics, hosting over 61,000 creators on its platform. The platform uses a freemium business model where a few chapters are free of charge before readers have to pay, either through money or their in-app currency called ‘ink.’ After Kakao Entertainment’s acquisition in May 2021 for $510 million, the platform rebranded to Tapas Entertainment after merging with Radish, a web novels platform that Kakao also acquired.

In January 2023, Tapas Media’s former CEO and founder Chang Kim listed that he would go on sabbatical on his Linkedin page, after previously announcing in a now-private post that he would be stepping away from his company.

Source: Yonhap News Agency, Twitter