Naver Webtoon's Toon Filter creates 20 mn AI-converted images

South Korea’s Naver Webtoon Corp. on Monday said over 20 million converted images were created in a week after the May 12 pilot launch of its Toon Filter.

Toon Filter is an artificial intelligence technology that converts user-uploaded photos into webtoon-style images. Character styles from 10 webtoons are available including “Yumi’s Cells,” “Shape of the Nightmare,” “Lookism,” “Maru Is a Puppy” and “Hurricane Princess.”

The pictures were obtained with the consent of their creators, and Naver Webtoon’s filtering technology Xpider for Image was used to prevent inappropriate image conversion.

“The service is only available on apps in Korean, but 80% of its cumulative users were found to be overseas,” a company source said. “Indonesia had the most users, followed in order by South Korea, Russia, the Philippines and Malaysia.”

In addition, users in over 30 countries including the US, Japan, Thailand, France, Vietnam and Italy accessed Toon Filter.

In just a week, the app’s popularity boosted the number of new users of Naver Webtoon’s Korean-language app 480% and that of those waiting to access the filter to over 10,000.

Naver Webtoon will launch a global service for the filter.

“By combining content and technology, creators and characters can create more opportunities to communicate with fans,” a Naver Webtoon source said.

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com