Chinese comics and dramas woo overseas audience

Chinese comics and dramas receive warm market response in the overseas markets as a result of high quality contents, huge investment by publishers and their mature marketing techniques, Shanghai Daily learned today.

Strange Marriage, a comic work by a Chinese author, has ranked the No. 1 overseas work in the platform Naver in South Korea. It has also been the 12 most popular title in Japan’s Comico platform.

Chinese online literature has been integrated with comic and film, a novel form attractive for overseas audience, said iReader, an e-book reader platform owning the copyright of Strange Marriage.

Meanwhile, iReader has cooperated with Thailand-based Hongsamut to translate and publish nine popular works by Chinese authors in Thailand.

iReader, which issued initial public offering in the Shanghai stock market in September, has become an online literature giant with market value of over 16 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion).

Online video firms including Youku Tudou and iQiyi have already distributed dramas in the overseas markets, such as a crime work to be published by Netflix.

Netflix has acquired the rights from Youku Tudou to screen the Day and Night, based on a story of Chinese detectives, globally. It was the first time for Netflix to distribute a drama produced by the Chinese mainland.

Youku Tudou is invested by Alibaba while iQiyi is owned by Baidu.