Webtoon Entertainment, a subsidiary of Naver in the US, saw its shares surge by approximately 10 percent on its first day of trading on Nasdaq, resulting in a valuation of $2.92 billion. The stock opened at $21.30 and reached a high of $24 before closing at $23. The company raised an estimated $315 million through its initial public offering by selling 15 million shares at $21 per share. Following the IPO, Naver holds a 63.4 percent stake in Webtoon Entertainment, while LY Corporation has a 24.7 percent stake. This listing aligns with Naver's strategy to accelerate the global expansion of the Webtoon platform. During a press conference in New York, Webtoon Entertainment's Founder and CEO Kim Jun-koo expressed that the company's Nasdaq debut marked the halfway point in its journey to become the "Disney of Asia." Kim shared his aspiration for Webtoon Entertainment to develop distribution channels and intellectual content comparable to Disney's and to endure for over a century, akin to Disney's legacy. He emphasized the company's ability to deliver competitive intellectual properties to a wider audience due to its collaboration with numerous individual artists. Founded in 2005, Webtoon Entertainment has grown from a side project by its current CEO to a California-based online comics company under Naver, attracting international readers and adapting some of its comics into popular drama series.