Kakao Entertainment plans to shut down its Tapas webtoon platform, which hosts Solo Leveling, Overgeared, Villains Are Destined to Die, and Tomb Raider King, Maeil Business reports.
As of this writing, Kakao has not posted information on its own press site about the move, and judging from comments on Bluesky and Reddit, they have not released any information for creators or subscribers about next steps. In addition to the Korean properties owned by Kakao, Tapas hosts many webtoons by independent creators, including Leeanne M. Krecic’s Eisner-nominated Let’s Play (see “‘Let’s Play’ Moves to Tapas After Webtoon Beef“) and Turtleme’s The Beginning After the End. Users on Reddit noted a few weeks ago that Tapas had abruptly shut down its ink (in-app currency) promotions and removed gift episodes from the app.
In Korea, the Kakao Labor Union criticized the company for not communicating with employees about the process for closing down Tapas and the effects it will have on employees, The Chosun Daily reports. Kakao will release information on timelines and platform integration on September 29, but it’s not clear whether this applies to Tapas as well as the Korean companies.
While it has long played second fiddle to the larger WEBTOON platform, Tapas hosts a number of popular titles, including Overgeared, SSS-Class Revival Hunter, and Villains Are Destined to Die, all of which have anime in the works (see “Webtoons with Recent and Upcoming Adaptations“). Solo Leveling, arguably the biggest webtoon property in North America, runs on both Tapas and Tappytoon. These titles are published by Yen Press’s manhwa imprint Ize Press, but Inklore, Crossed Hearts, Andrews McMeel, and Vault Comics also publish Tapas titles in print.
In addition to discontinuing Tapas, Kakao will merge its Asian platforms Kakao Webtoon and Kakao Page into a single entity, Kakao Page. The move follows the closure of the webnovel platform Radish in 2025 and comes as Kakao prepares to split into two companies, Kakao AI and Kakao X. Kakao Entertainment will be part of the latter company and has already combined several subsidiaries in order to streamline its operations (see “The ‘Great Muddle’“).
Kakao Webtoon, originally Daum Webtoon, was launched in 2003 and was one of the first webtoon platforms. Daum merged with Kakao in 2014, and Kakao rebranded and relaunched the platform as Kakao Webtoon in 2021. Kakao acquired Tapas the same year (see “Tapas Is the Main Course“).
Source: ICv2
