Wattpad WEBTOON Studios has hired Shane Mang as its first head of licensing & merchandise. A former Spin Master and Jim Henson Company licensing director, Mang will lead this new division as the online publisher makes a push into consumer products. 

His duties include overseeing the company’s licensing initiatives and expanding WEBTOON’s merchandising efforts, reporting to WWS president Aron Levitz. This is a new priority for the company, which launched online store WEBSTOON Shop just last month to sell apparel, accessories and books based on its content, including the web comics Lore Olympus and Mage & Demon Queen. Prior to this, WWS signed the rare L&M deal from time to time, including one in 2021 with Hot Topic for Lore Olympus merch. 

“Our platforms are home to some of Gen Z’s most passionate fandoms, and we’ve already seen fans follow their favorite stories to adaptations as series, films and books,” says Levitz. 

Wattpad and WEBTOON has been building steam as webnovel and webcomic platforms, offering popular content that has proven it can successfully cross over into other forms of entertainment. Some of its hits include The Kissing Booth, which spawned three YA films that all performed well on Netflix; and After, whose five-title film series collectively grossed more than US$141.5 million at the global box office and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. 

There are also a few buzzy projects in the pipeline with strong licensing potential, including Henson’s adaptation of Lore Olympus. WEBTOON’s most popular comic with more than 1.4 billion views, Lore Olympus is a modern retelling of the ancient Greek myth of Persophone—a goddess who marries Hades, the king of the underworld. Also Boot Camp, a live-action film in production at Thunderbird’s Great Pacific Media, based on the same-name YA story that has racked up more than 26 million reads on Wattpad, premiered earlier this year. 

Prior to joining WWS, Mang was head of licensing at Invisible Universe, where he established the company’s licensing division to expand brands like Serena Williams’ Qai Qai. Before that, he was director of licensing and sales at Spin Master (2019 to 2023), executive director of global licensing at Henson (2018 to 2019) and business development manager for licensing at WildBrain (2015 to 2018).