Webtoon

This article is about the type of comics. For the platform, see Webtoon (platform). For animation made for the Web, see Computer animation § Web animations.

Webtoons (Korean: 웹툰) are a type of digital comic that originated in South Korea usually meant to be read on smartphones.

While webtoons were mostly unknown outside of Korea during their inception, there has been a surge in popularity internationally thanks in great part to the rise in popularity of manhwa and the fact that most manhwa are released as webtoons.^[1] In the country, as digital manhwa have emerged as a popular medium, print publication of manhwa has decreased.^{[citation needed]} The amount of material published in webtoon form has now reached an equal amount as that published offline.^[2]

Format

Webtoons usually feature a few of common traits: each episode is published on one long, vertical strip (making use of an infinite canvas rather than multiple pages so that it is easier to read on a smartphone or computer); some feature music and animations that play during each chapter; and unlike the majority of East Asian comics, they are usually in color instead of black-and-white since they are published digitally on a website or app rather than physically in a magazine. In the case of South Korea, there are also different censorship laws for materials published online than in print which has led to more manhwa that is erotic and sexually explicit being produced and published as webtoons.^[3]

Revenue model

Like other online publications, there are a variety of payment models used for webtoons. Some offer a limited set of chapters for free and charge for the rest. Others allow only a certain number of chapters to be read per day without payment.^{[citation needed]}

Creators of webtoons can earn money from ads displayed on their series. Until 2019, amateur creators could earn money from the credit that was given by their fans. The money that the pro and amateur creators receive depends on the page view.^[4]

Origins and history

While there has been webcomics uploaded and hosted by individual creators since the mid-to-late 1990s, the advent of the webtoon model dates back to 2000, when Lycos Korea, the Korean version of the American search engine Lycos, launched the Manhwa Bang section in their portal site. Yahoo! Korea followed suit with a similar service called Cartoon Sesang two years later. By the year of 2002, based on the Cultural Industry Promoting Law, the predecessor of the Korea Creative Content Agency was established and started to support the manhwa and related industries as a whole.^[5]

The Korean web portal Daum created a webtoon service known as Daum Webtoon in 2003 and was later followed by Naver with the launch of Naver Webtoon in 2004.^[6] These services regularly release webtoons that are available for free. According to David Welsh of Bloomberg, comics account for a quarter of all book sales in South Korea, while more than 3 million Korean users paid to access online manhwa and 10 million users read free webtoons.^[7]

South Korea's first webtoon is 《Uninhabited Island》 (Korean: 무인도; Hanja: 無人島; RR: Muindo) by Han Hee-jak in 1996.^[8]

As of July 2014^[update], Naver had published 520 webtoons while Daum had published 434. Since the early 2010s, services such as TappyToon and Spottoon have begun to officially translate webtoons into English while some Korean publishers like Lezhin, Toomics, and TopToon have begun to self translate their works.^[9][10][11] Examples of popular webtoons that have been translated into English are Lookism, Untouchable, Yumi's Cells, The Sound of Heart, Tales of the Unusual, The Gamer, The God of High School, Girls of the Wild's, Noblesse, and Tower of God. In recent years, these webtoons have been gaining popularity in Western markets, rivalling Japanese manga.^[12]

In the past, it was divided into two ratings: All (webtoon suitable for all ages) and 18 (No one under 18 is allowed to read this webtoon). From May 2019, the webtoon rating system was implemented. It is said that 10 platforms including Naver and Daum will participate. The ratings are expected to be △ All △ 12 years or older △ 15 years or older △ 19 years old (18 years old) or older.^[13]

Generation Zero

 

Layout of an early webtoon. Buttons allow turning the page.

The earliest webtoons were scanned original comics uploaded onto the Internet, usually formatted on a one-page layout.^{[citation needed]}

First generation

With the development of technology, authors were able to utilize flash animation effects.^{[citation needed]}

Second generation

 

An example of a second generation webtoon.

Enhanced preloading enabled later authors to adopt a vertical layout with scrolling. In contrast to comics with a dense panel composition, scrolling brings new panels into view. This makes webtoons suitable for gradual and continuous representation, allowing webtoon reading to become more fluid.^[14]

Third generation

 

A scene from the webtoon Tower of God, a third-generation webtoon

 

An example of a modern Korean webtoon viewed through a webtoon viewing interface (Amazing Rumor by Jang Yi in Daum Webtoon)

With the advent of the smartphone and tablet, webtoons have also migrated to new platforms such as apps. There have also been sounds introduced to imply further expressions and tones, as well as interactive motions to create excitement and bring attention to certain objects for the viewers.^[15]

Prior to 2014, most webtoons were only available in English through unofficial fan translations. In July 2014, Naver subsidiary Line began publication of translations of popular webtoons to English via the Webtoon service.^[16][17]

Market

The market for webtoons and their derivatives is currently valued at around KR₩420 billion (US$368 million).^[18]

Although digital comics are increasingly popular, print publication remains the primary means of comic retail. Some publishers offer online content and print content simultaneously.^[19]

Webtoons have been taken as source material by a number of different mediums, including film and television; one of the earliest examples of this was 'Tazza, a 2006 film based on the comic by Huh Young-man. This work was serialized in the Sports Chosun and garnered over 100 million homepage views, later being adapted into two films. (Tazza: The High Rollers, Tazza: The Hidden Card), and one television series (Tazza (TV series)). Another of Huh's works, Sikgaek (Le Grand Chef), was published in the Dong-a Ilbo for five years and sold 540,000 copies in paperback version.

Naver's Webtoon service, launched in 2014, is now the biggest webtoon platform in Korea. According to Naver, it reaches over 6.2 million daily users. The free WEBTOON translation service has allowed webtoons to form part of the global Korean Wave.^[20]

They also collaborate with movies.^[21]

Outside of South Korea

The webtoon format has also expanded to other countries with many different distributors offering original and translated webtoons for users to read as well as offering platforms for anyone to upload their own webtoons.

Mainland China and Taiwan

In mainland China and Taiwan, webtoons along with web manhua have seen an increase in production and popularity since they are rarely published and just like in South Korea, have resulted in a resurgence and interest in the manhua industry as more content is consumed digitally. Almost all of the big webtoon portals in China are offered by the big internet companies in the country while in Taiwan the bigger webtoon publishers outside of the country like Comico, Toomics, and Webtoon are more popular since their services are available there.^[22]

Japan

Webtoons in Japan were slow to catch on as well as in other countries mainly due to the traditional manga industry still being the main way in which manga gets released and published. Even web manga, which have seen a recent rise in popularity, are often in black-and-white instead of color, as is common in their Korean and Chinese counterparts, despite being released digitally.^[23] Despite this, there have been some strides to penetrate the Japanese market and slowly more mangaka are trying out the webtoon format to release their titles.^[24] Lezhin, Comico, Naver, Line, and Kakao offer webtoon portals with translated works for Japanese readers. Comico, one of the biggest webtoon publishers in the world, was created by the Japanese subsidiary of NHN Entertainment, NHN Japan. To date, there are only two webtoon portals that offer original Japanese webtoons, Comico and Naver (under the name XOY 2017–2018 to 2019). All XOY webtoons have been integrated onto Line Manga a Japanese Manga service while XOY was up until its demise in January 2019.^[25] Kakao has also had success in the Japanese market by offering both licensed manga and translated Korean webtoons with their service, Piccoma. This has been credited to the webtoon pay model that the service implements where some chapters are offered for free for a short period of time.^[26] Kakao Japan has announced that it will start offering original Japanese, Korean, and Chinese webtoons for Piccoma in the Summer of 2018.^[27] 2021 saw a great deal of tracking for webtoon in Japan with investment from traditional Japanese manga publishers like Shueisha and Shogakukan.^[28][29] CELSYS announced on that they will support webtoon in their CLIP STUDIO READER platform from February 2022.^[30]

India

In India, webtoons have grown into popularity.^[31] With the global launch of LINE Webtoon by NAVER Corporation in 2014, it became the first go to app that introduced webtoons in India.^[32] Kross Komics launched the first dedicated Indian webtoon portal in 2020 targeting domestic audience and offering 40 translated South Korean titles in English, Hindi and Telugu. It is also planning to introduce content from the Chinese and Japanese markets.^[31][33] After its official mobile app release on 7 December 2019, it was downloaded over 200,000 times on Google Play.^[31] As of July 2021, it registered 1.1 million monthly active uses and 3.5 million app downloads.^[34] Webtoon dramatization further helped increase readership.^[35]

Kross Komics, founded in May 2019, is headquartered in Seoul with additional offices in Mumbai and Los Angeles. It mainly targets the 15-24 age group, especially females, and supports both Korean and Indian webtoon content creators.^[36][37] Popularity of digital comics is now encouraging Indian publishers such as Graphic India to launch their own service called Toonsutra in the market.^[38][39] In 2021, Kakao Entertainment was planning to enter the Indian market after its acquisition of Kross Komics in 2020.^[40][41] From Q3 2022, Kakao Entertainment will provide webtoon content and customer support for Kross Komics.^[42]

Southeast Asia

Indonesia and Thailand have become big markets for the webtoon industry with both Naver (under WEBTOON) and Comico offering both original webtoons and fully translated titles. Some webtoons made in Indonesia and Thailand, such as Teen Mom and Eggnoid, have even been translated and published outside the countries . Vietnam launched its first webtoon portal, Vinatoon, which offers translated titles from Daum Webtoon and Mr. Blue with the intention of opening up another market.^[43]

Western countries

Many webtoon publishers have had success in penetrating markets outside of Asia with the biggest successes being the United States and other English speaking countries.^[44]

Lezhin, Toomics, Manta, and WEBTOON are the only big publishers who translate their own titles rather than licensing them out. WEBTOON even offers the ability for fan translations to be offered in different languages.

TopToon's TopToonPlus service, launched in July 2021, was another global launch by a Korean webtoon company for their global fans. In its first month of service, it gained over 200,000 subscribers.^[11]

Spottoon and TappyToon offer translated licensed works from various publishers including KToon, Bomtoon, Foxtoon, and many more. Delitoon provides French translations of licensed works, mostly Korean titles.

Besides just the consumption of translated works, there has also been a rise in the creation of original non-Asian webtoons thanks in part to sites like Tapas and the aforementioned WEBTOON offering the ability for anyone to submit their own work.^[45] In the beginning, many of the webtoons created outside of Asia tended to just be webcomics released in the webtoon format but over time, more artists have released more titles that are full-fledged comics rather than reformatted webcomics.

To better serve the US market and increase the intellectual property value chain, Kakao Entertainment in 2022 merged with Radish Media and the aforementioned Tapas to form a single entity.^[46]

Media franchise

See also: Category:Works based on South Korean webtoons

See also

• Korean wave

References

1. "Millions in Korea are obsessed with these revolutionary comics — now they're going global". February 11, 2016.
2. Noh, Sueen. ""To Be or Not to Be, That Is the Question": What Is Happening with Korean manga, (Manhwa), Today?" International Journal of manga Art (IJOCA) 9.2 (2007): n. pag. International Journal of manga Art (IJOCA). John A. Lent, Sept. 2007. Web. 3 Dec. 2015.
3. "Watchdog hit for excessive digital censorship". 30 March 2015.
4. "Creators 101 :: MAKE MONEY". www.webtoons.com. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
5. . 한국만화애니메이션학회. doi:10.7230/KOSCAS.2018.51.225 (inactive 31 December 2022). Archived from the original on 2022-04-07.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of December 2022 (link) Alt URL
6. Herald, The Korea (2014-05-25). "Korean webtoons going global". www.koreaherald.com. Retrieved 2016-04-27.
7. Welsh, David (23 April 2007). "Forget Manga. Here's Manhwa". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2016-04-27.
8. "숫자로 보는 만화산업" [Cartoon industry in numbers]. Etnews (in Korean). 2016-06-23. Retrieved 2022-11-20.
9. Lee, Jun-Youb (2015-04-03). "Startup Battles Naver in English Webtoons". The Wall Street Journal.
10. 박형기 (November 18, 2015). "Rolling Story takes Korean webtoons to global audience". koreaherald.com. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
11. "Toptoon Global to being services for English-speaking countries in full swing as the members surpass 200,000 in number". PRNewswire. 2021-08-13.
12. "[다시 도전이다] 미생·스틸레인 웹툰작가들, 美·中 독자도 웃고 울린다". Wow TV. 2015-01-01.
13. "웹툰 속 '극단적 선택' 표현…네이버·다음 등 '웹툰 등급제' 시행 예정". Segyeilbo. 2019-05-14.
14. Han, Chang-wan (2012-06-30). 애니메이션 연구6(Animation studies6). 한국 애니메이션 학회(Korean cartoon and animation studies). pp. 124–139.
15. Jang, Wonho; Song, Jung Eun (2017-08-31). "Webtoon as a New Korean Wave in the Process of Glocalization". Kritika Kultura (29). doi:10.13185/kk2017.02908. ISSN 2094-6937.
16. . PRNewswire. Archived from the original on 7 July 2014. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
17. "Korea's webtoon market experiences exponential growth over past 10 years". Arirang News. from the original on 22 November 2021. Retrieved 16 August 2014.
18. "South Korean 'webtoon' craze makes global waves | The Japan Times". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2015-11-30.
19. Choi, yun cheol. "2009해외콘텐츠 시장조사(2009 abroad contents market research)". www.kocca.kr. 한국콘텐츠진흥원(Korea creative contents agency).
20. Song, Jung-Eun; Nahm, Kee-Bom; Jang, Won-Ho (2014). "The Impact of Spread of Webtoon on the Development of Hallyu: The Case Study of Indonesia". 한국엔터테인먼트산업학회논문지. 8 (2): 357–367. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
21. "영화를 웹툰으로 미리 본다? 영화X웹툰 콜라보의 세계". Cineplay. 2017-08-14.
22. "台灣線上原創漫畫發威，看LINE WEBTOON和comico如何經營IP｜數位時代 BusinessNext". 數位時代.
23. Nagata, Kazuaki (August 2, 2017). "As manga goes digital via smartphone apps, do paper comics still have a place?". The Japan Times.
24. "Korean game, webtoon providers cruise in Japan". koreatimes. August 31, 2017.
25. "[Japan] LINE Manga Operator, LINE Digital Frontier, Procures JPY 8.6 B from NAVER WEBTOON | LINE Corporation | News". LINE Corporation.
26. Ramirez, Elaine. "Kakao Will Use Wildly Popular South Korean Webtoons To Build An Audience In Japan & China". Forbes.
27. "Kakao Japan ramps up manga content via smartphone app". Nikkei Asia.
28. "Made-in-Japan manga goes global with Webtoon, Deadpool". ABC News. Retrieved 2022-03-10.
29. "誰でもマンガをつくれる？"縦スクロール漫画" コンテスト！ 小学館×バンダイ主催『TOON GATE(トゥーンゲート)』12月3日スタート". プレスリリース・ニュースリリース配信シェアNo.1｜PR TIMES. Retrieved 2022-03-10.
30. "viviONの電子コミックストア「DLsite comipo」のWEBTOON作品の配信にセルシスが提供する電子書籍ビューア「CLIP STUDIO READER」が採用". CELSYS (in Japanese). Retrieved 2022-03-10.
31. Shete, Yugandhara (February 3, 2020). "India's first comic app, Kross Komics gets 200k downloads in just six weeks". Animation Xpress.
32. "[LINE] LINE Webtoon Released First on Android, Offers Free Comic Content on Smartphones | LINE Corporation | News". LINE Corporation. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
33. Yugandhara Shete (2020-12-07). "Kross Komics completes its first successful year in the industry". AnimationXpress. Retrieved 2021-06-17.
34. Dutta Yadav, Medha (18 July 2021). "K-omics revolution: Korea's Kross Komics launches first-of-its-kind webtoon app with content in English, Hindi and Telugu". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 22 July 2021.
35. "Netflix Korean drama series 'Business Proposal' increases Kross Komics' readership by 20 per cent". AnimationXpress. 2022-05-11. Retrieved 2022-05-16.
36. "Webtoon app Kross Komics crosses 1 million monthly active users". AnimationXpress. 2021-06-17. Retrieved 2021-06-17.
37. "After K-Pop and K-Drama, Korean webtoons engage Indian Gen-Z". Lokmat English. 2021-06-29. Retrieved 2021-06-29.
38. "Friendship Day 2021: Best Korean webtoons to binge read with your friends". Free Press Journal. Retrieved 2021-08-01.
39. Paul, Mathures (23 March 2021). "Graphic India launches webtoon comics platform 'Toonsutra'". Telegraph India. Retrieved 2021-08-01.
40. Park, Eun-jee (18 July 2021). "Naver takes on the world, market by market". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 2021-08-04.
41. "Kross Komic's best-selling webtoon – A Business Proposal to be remade into a K-drama; expected to air in early 2022". Bold. 2021-08-09. Retrieved 2021-08-09.
42. Joshi, Dhruvi (2022-06-07). "Kross Comics and Kross Pictures' to grow in India and produce a lot more K-webtoons based K-dramas: co-founder Hyunwoo Thomas Kim". AnimationXpress. Retrieved 2022-06-07.
43. . Archived from the original on 2018-04-03.
44. "Yonhap News Agency". Yonhap News Agency.
45. "Tapas Media aims to turn digital comics into the next big entertainment franchise". 22 March 2018.
46. Lim, Chang-won (2022-05-19). "Kakao Entertainment merges two American subsidiaries to compete with domestic rival". Aju Business Daily. Retrieved 2022-05-19.