Naver Webtoon starts fortunetelling, personality test services

South Korea's Naver Webtoon has launched a service combining its content with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a US test of personality type, following the release of its fortunetelling feature Webtoon Fortune.

The company's strategy is to expand the use of webtoon intellectual property (IP) by attracting user interest through services with fun elements.

Naver Webtoon on Wednesday said it will soon release Toon BTI for use in its Korean-language app. After a user takes the MBTI, Toon BTI features characters with tendencies like the user's.

“This service will provide fun for users within the app," a company source said.

Last month, Naver Webtoon launched the fortunetelling service Webtoon Fortune. The corresponding menu in the app's More tab shows one's daily fortunes in love, wealth and study. A user can select one of three fortune topics that is presented with a scene from one of the company's serial webtoons, with a link providing instant access to the work containing the scene.

The company's strategy is to immediately attract as readers those interested in the phrases presented with their fortunes.

Launched in May, the company's Toon Filter is also gaining popularity by using artificial intelligence to transform portraits into webtoon characters. After the service's release, the number of new daily users of Naver Webtoon's Korean-language app skyrocketed up to 480% from the previous week.

In addition, the company has rolled out other tech-savvy features like Webtoon AI Painter, which helps users color according to sketch context, Toon Radar, which detects pirated content, and Xpider, which filters out harmful materials.

Naver Webtoon is releasing webtoon-based entertainment to attract new users, blazing new paths toward this goal through innovative services like MBTI Toon, Webtoon Fortune and photos using AI while raising the IP influence of webtoons.

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