Manga App comico to End Service on January 6, 2027
NHN comico announced on August 17 that the manga app comico will end its service at 23:59 on January 6, 2027. The service, which began in October 2013, helped establish vertical-scroll, full-color manga as a standard format for smartphones in Japan. It distributed over 600 original manga and reached more than 25 million cumulative domestic downloads as of 2026. The shutdown will happen in stages. New chapter distribution, work rental updates, coin sales, and new member registration will stop at 23:59 on August 31, 2026. Sales and rentals of works will stop at 23:59 on September 28, 2026, after which rental gauges and tickets become unusable. Users can view purchased works from their bookshelf until the service ends. The operator is preparing to transfer purchased works to the ebook store MechaComic, with a transfer period scheduled from January 7 to April 30, 2027. Unused paid coins will be refunded, with details announced by January 6, 2027. The announcement does not cover the end of NHN comico's WebToon production business, which continues to distribute works to over 20 platforms.