Naver Webtoon’s global users quadruple in 5 years on localization

Naver Webtoon Corp., the digital comics and novel platform of South Korea’s online portal giant Naver Corp., saw users nearly quadrupling in five years thanks to localizations.

Naver Webtoon’s story-tech platform that provides webtoon and web novels, secured 180 million monthly active users (MAU) as of March around the world, up from 46 million in 2017, according to the company.

The number of monthly users for its global webtoon services such as LINE Webtoon for Southeast Asia, Webtoon for North America and Europe, as well as LINE Manga for Japan, reached 82 million. The company currently provides webtoons in 10 languages around the world.

“The platform made by Naver Webtoon has gained the status of the world’s No. 1 story-tech platform used by 180 million people around the world,” said Naver Webtoon CEO Kim Jun-koo said in his 5th-anniversary message. “We became a global player that major companies in the world’s entertainment first look for.”

Naver Webtoon, split in May 2017 from Naver, provides webtoon in 10 languages in various markets such as South Kores, Japan, Southeast Asia, the Americas and Europe.

ESTABLISHES CONTENT ECOSYSTEM IN OVERSEAS MARKETS

Naver started webtoon services in Taiwan and Thailand in 2014 when few were aware of webtoons in other countries. The publishing market was too small to establish a proper content ecosystem at that time.

“We visited universities to explain what webtoons are and what webtoon creators do to someone who can draw cartoons,” said a Naver webtoon source.

In the second half of 2016, Naver Webtoon set up programs to train webtoon artists in overseas markets such as Thailand with South Korean webtoon creators teaching production processes. The company also operates a system to debut a non-professional cartoonist as a webtoon creator if his or her works are recommended by many fans. Some of them with excellent quality were translated into other languages for exports.

With such a content ecosystem, about 6 million creators worked for Naver Webtoon’s global platforms and Wattpad, the largest web novel platform in North America with the number of accumulated works totaling at around 1 billion.

“Naver Webtoon’s unique platform model that has both one for amateur where anyone can showcase their works and the other for original content is paying off,” said another company source.

Naver Webtoon made its digital comics and web novels core intellectual property in the global entertainment business, utilizing its advanced IP value chain, global platforms and business models.

Its annual transaction value more than quadrupled to 1.1 trillion won ($830 million) last year from 240 billion won in 2017.

The company has also been improving the environment for creators with the development of artificial intelligence technologies for content domains such as the Webtoon AI painter that automatically colors and the ToonRadar that monitors illegal copies.

“The upcoming growth in the coming five years will be much larger than the growth in the past five years,” CEO Kim said.

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.