Developing K-Webtoon, the Light and the Shadow

▲ Logos of Naver Webtoon, Kakao Piccoma, Kakao Page, and LINE Manga (Source: Korea Economic Daily)

The domestic webtoon industry is growing rapidly. According to the, ‘2023 Webtoon Business Survey,’ announced by the Korea Creative Content Agency, the estimated size (total sales) of the domestic webtoon industry is 1.829 trillion won in 2022. The sales, which were 1.0538 trillion won in 2020 and 1.566 trillion won in 2021, have been steadily increasing thus far. The, ‘2023 Webtoon Business Status Survey,’ is a report that investigated sales, import, and export statuses, contract practices, unfair practices, etc, for companies or businesses conducting webtoon- related business in 2022 during the survey period from July to September 2023.

The growth of the domestic webtoon industry has had a positive effect not only on Korean but also on overseas markets. According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the overseas export size of the comics and webtoon industry reached 107.64 million dollars in 2022, increasing by 31.3% compared to the previous year. The webtoon platforms created by Naver Webtoon and Kakao, representative companies in the webtoon industry, are attracting popularity overseas, especially in Japan. According to the, ‘2023 Global Comics App Market Insight Report,’ announced by Sensor Tower, a global mobile market data analysis company, Kakao Piccoma ranks first in global webtoon platform sales in 2022, LINE Manga ranks second, Naver Webtoon ranks third, and Kakao Page ranks fourth. Kakao Piccoma is Kakao's Japanese webtoon platform, and LINE Manga is Naver Webtoon's Japanese service. Both platforms exceeded 100 billion yen in 2023.

Despite this industry growth, there is a dark side to the domestic webtoon industry. The treatment of webtoon artists is not good, and their total annual income has decreased compared to the previous year. According to the, ‘2023 Webtoon Business Survey,’ announced by the Korea Creative Content Agency, the average annual income of artists who published serially throughout the past year was about 98.4 million won in 2022, decreasing by 20.3 million won compared to 2021. The average annual income of artists who had experience publishing serials within the past year is about 64.76 million won in 2022, decreasing by 20.97 million won compared to 2021. An official from the Korea Creative Content Agency said, "The webtoon industry grew rapidly between 2021 and 2022, but it is estimated that the average annual income of artists who published serially throughout the past year is currently in a stagnation period due to the end of COVID- 19 leading to increased external activities and excessive competition for works." The working conditions for webtoon artists are also not good. The average number of days a webtoon writer creates in a week is 5.8 days, and the average time spent on creating days in a week is 9.5 hours.

In addition, with the growth of the webtoon industry, the problem of illegal distribution for webtoons has also emerged. According to the, ‘2023 Webtoon Business Survey,’ announced by the Korea Creative Content Agency, the size of the illegal distribution market for webtoons in 2022 was 721.5 billion won. Naver Webtoon and Kakao are working to solve this problem of illegal distribution of webtoons. Naver Webtoon is using an AI- based illegal webtoon monitoring system called, ‘Toon Radar,’ developed in 2017. This system inserts user identification information into webtoon images to identify and block illegal leakers. Kakao created P.CoK (Protecting the Contents of Kakao Entertainment), a global illegal distribution response team, in 2021. P.CoK deleted a total of 208 million illegal webtoons and web novels from June to December 2023. P.CoK directly deleted 7.44 million illegal content and 201.13 million links. This is the biggest achievement of P.CoK since the crackdown began in 2021.

The domestic webtoon market is developing, but behind it, there are problems with the treatment of webtoon artists and the illegal distribution for webtoons. In order to solve the problem of treatment of webtoon artists, it is necessary to prevent a decrease in the income of webtoon artists and improve working conditions of webtoon artists. Furthermore, continuous efforts from companies are essential to solve the problem of illegal distribution for webtoons.