How does French legislation on the pricing of digital books apply to manga and other digital work that is sold by online platforms sold with Coins?
One of the biggest hurdles to the digital webtoon business in France is legislation regarding book pricing which are set by the publisher and followed by all shops, regardless of which company, shop or digital bookshop is selling the book. This allows transparency between the publisher, the shops and customers.
The problem for webtoon platforms here is three-fold:
(1) Content providers are rarely this transparent with platforms
(2) Platforms are rarely this transparent with content providers
(3) Traditionally, platforms don't have this level of transparency with their readership
My main theory in regards to why the French market has proven so difficult for Korean platforms to penetrate is simple: the single price legislation in France cancels out their most effective strategies.
Yes, the readership behaves different. Yes, popular titles are different from country. But...
The current platform strategy in Korea and the US is bulk launching titles followed by overwhelming numbers of promotions. This makes the pricing of each episode ambiguous and gives customers the sense that there's always a discount to be had.
Think of Manta's announcement that they're launching 300 titles between September and December. Or Tapas' nearly daily launch of a new romantasy title. Or Lezhin launching nearly 50 new titles in a month. These pale in comparison to their Korean counterparts.
Followed up by Coin sales, WUF promotions, free episodes, Coinback, free Coins, free Rentals, and on and on. While each strategy might be tweaked for foreign audiences WUF, Coinback, Coin sales and every other popular promotion in the US can be traced back to Korea. This is true for Lezhin, Webtoons, Tapas and even Tappytoon (who doesn't have a Korean-side).
But, due to existing legislation, those strategies are not available in France. So we end up with bulk launches and... fewer promotions. Leading to fewer sales and increased costs. Which leads to cutting costs.
On the one hand, I don't think the French readership is all that different from the American readership. Or the Japanese or Korean readership. At our core, we want a good story and we're willing to pay.
But the market conditions in France are different specifically in one key aspect: single pricing legislation. I look forward to seeing a platform that figures out the secret to connecting content to readers in the French market within the bounds of market limitations.
ONO, maybe?
![View organization page for Médiateur du livre, graphic]()
📖 💻 📱 Le médiateur du livre rend son avis sur le recours aux jetons numériques par les plateformes de mangas et webtoons . Au terme d'un long travail d'accompagnement des acteurs sur un sujet passionnant, il retient quatre conclusions fortes :
👉 La loi de 2011 sur le prix du livre numérique fixe un cadre essentiel pour la distribution des mangas afin d'assurer une concurrence saine entre les acteurs et une transparence des prix.
👉 Le marché des plateformes en ligne de mangas et webtoons est en plein bouillonnement, les lecteurs affluent, les modèles économiques se cherchent et la régulation doit accompagner ce mouvement avec souplesse.
👉 La transition vers la lecture en ligne de ces œuvres nécessite de développer les offres légales pour sortir du piratage aujourd'hui massif.
👉 Tous ces contenus d'origine asiatique font vivre tout un écosystème français de distribution mais aussi de plus en plus de création dont la vitalité et le développement soulèvent un vrai enjeu culturel et économique.
Merci à tous les acteurs du secteur pour leur participation active aux consultations entreprises et très bonne lecture !
