Delitoon

Didier Borg worked in television and music, before becoming an editor for comics publisher Casterman in 2006. Though the television and music industry were revolutionized by digital advancements, Borg found that the comics industry was lagging behind. As the iPhone came out, many start-up companies attempted to distribute comics on mobile devices, but none of these endeavors had any significant success. Didier discerned that such start-up companies lacked knowledge of comic book development, while the larger publishing houses were unable to master the technology. When he worked on the KSTR collection in 2008, Casterman was publishing "curious Korean books without a box": webtoons.[1]

None of the major webtoon services in Korea were willing to collaborate with Casterman to create a French webtoon service, though a smaller company eventually offered to adapt their technology. The first version of Delitoon was launched by Casterman in 2011, offering various French titles from the KSTR collection. Though the website attracted a good number of readers, online advertisement was not able to generate enough revenue.[1] Established French cartoonists were similarly reluctant to publish their work specifically for smartphones.[2]

30% of Delitoon was acquired by Daou Technology Inc. in October 2015, for €700,000 euros. The service provided its assortment of webtoons free of charge until January 2016 (during the Angoulême International Comics Festival), when the website experienced a significant redesign. A dozen Korean-translated short stories were published during this event, each available for €10, while single episodes cost less than 80 cents.[3] Borg later stated that Delitoon became a real business in 2015.[4]

Chinese social network Sina Weibo partnered with Delitoon in February 2017, allowing many French webcomics to be translated into Mandarin and many Chinese webcomics to be translated into French.[5][6]