Samsung pre-installs WEBTOON on its new Galaxy A37 and A57

Samsung and WEBTOON have just announced a partnership around the Galaxy A37 5G and Galaxy A57 5G, the two latest additions to the Galaxy A series from the South Korean manufacturer. Concretely, the WEBTOON application will be pre-installed on these two models. Buyers will therefore be able to access the catalog of the webcomics platform from the first time they turn on their smartphone, without going through the Google Play Store.

The association of two Korean giants

As a reminder, WEBTOON claims more than 160 million monthly active users around the world. The platform, which offers more than a thousand original stories covering genres as varied as romance, thriller, fantasy and comedy, has the particularity of relying on a vertical scrolling reading format, originally designed for smartphone screens. Several of its series have also been adapted into animation or live-action, like Tower of God, All of Us Are Dead or even Marry My Husband.

Affordable, yet capable smartphones

On the smartphone side, the Galaxy A37 and A57 share a screen diagonal of 6.7 inches and both feature a Super AMOLED panel with a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. Samsung also highlights its Vision Booster technology, which adjusts the brightness of the screen depending on the conditions. ambient lighting. Characteristics that the manufacturer considers particularly suitable for reading digital comics, where color rendering and smooth scrolling count.

Samsung, however, did not specify whether this partnership with WEBTOON would extend to other models in its range in the future. The prices and availability dates of the Galaxy A37 5G and Galaxy A57 5G in France have also not been communicated at this stage.

France, champion of manga

This type of partnership is not new in the smartphone industry. Manufacturers regularly pre-install third-party applications on their devices, whether as part of commercial agreements or to enrich the software experience offered to the buyer. On the other hand, the association of a manufacturer with a webcomics platform specifically remains quite unusual and clearly illustrates the growing place occupied by this entertainment format, particularly in France. Because, even if it has experienced a slowdown recently after years of explosive growth, the manga market remains a major pillar of French comic book publishing. Thus, in 2024, it represented around half of comic book sales, with significant volumes despite a drop. France is even the 2nd largest consumer in the world after Japan.

The manhwa boom

To be completely complete, note that WEBTOON does not offer Japanese manga. It is rather their Korean equivalents that we find here, namely manhwas. This subcategory is taking full advantage of the global pop culture invasion of the Land of Morning Calm. Their best-known representative here is Solo Levelingalthough it is no longer available on WEBTOON. The service still offers some gems of the same genre, like Omniscient reader, High School Mercenary, The Stellar Swordmaster and many others.