Arctic Fox is a CP (contents provider) company that produces and supplies content to webtoon and web novel platforms. Chief Executive Lee Su-ji, a former webtoon PD, and Chief Executive An Jae-geun, a former writer, founded the company in May 2019.
The two chiefs launched the startup with the idea, "Let's create valuable content and lead the development of Korea's content industry." To date, they have produced about 150 works, and representative titles include "The villainess is a marionette," "The flower that wields a sword," and "Extreme dog owner."
Arctic Fox leveraged the strengths of working PDs to build an efficient production process. Lee said, "We outsource the storyboard and line art to external artists, while coloring, post-correction, and background work are handled in-house, enabling efficient production through division of labor." Recently, the company has partially adopted an in-house approach that handles the entire process from storyboard to background work to diversify the content production environment.
Arctic Fox is standing out in the field of "female-oriented webtoons." Lee said, "Webtoons targeting female readers must be aesthetically meticulous and detailed, and in terms of story, the emotional aspects need to resonate," adding, "To that end, Arctic Fox discovers artists who can best embody the characteristics of the content and plans and produces the content."
Arctic Fox also runs a merchandise business using its IP. The company plans and produces IP products and sells them on its own mall, "Arctic Fox Store." In particular, it has moved into adaptations for video, games, and audio drama.
Lee said, "When webtoons or web novels are adapted into video, people seek out the original more, which extends the original's lifespan." Recently, the company's webtoon "Hodl Doctor" began development for drama.
Arctic Fox is currently focusing on entering Japan. Amid intensifying competition in the domestic webtoon market, it is targeting Japan, the world's No. 1 comics market, as a new arena.
Lee said, "For now, we provide services to Piccoma and others in the form of indirect exports through the overseas affiliates of Naver and Kakao," adding, "Going forward, we plan to establish in-house Japanese translation and typesetting teams and pursue direct exports."
As of 2024, the webtoon market size is 2 trillion won. The web novel market size is 1.35 trillion won. Of that, the CP market size was 700 billion won as of 2023.
Arctic Fox's CP market share is about 1.4%, with sales of 9.9 billion won in 2023 and 9.8 billion won in 2024. Arctic Fox is discussing pre-A investment, with support from the Gyeonggi Content Agency, to expand its webtoon and comics teams and studio and to enter the Japanese market.
Arctic Fox expressed its ambition to grow into "the best IP production company." Lee said, "Disney started with producing animated shorts and expanded its business into merchandise and films, growing into a comprehensive content company," adding, "Arctic Fox also wants to grow into corporations where, when we create a work, it becomes a webtoon, merchandise, and a film."