Platform doubles down on creator investment as it looks to turn the corner on a rocky stretch
Nasdaq-listed Webtoon Entertainment has paid out 4.15 trillion won (roughly $2.8 billion) to creators on its platform over the past five years, the company said Tuesday at a press briefing in Seoul, its most concrete public accounting yet of how much money flows to the artists behind the world's largest webcomics ecosystem.
Yongsoo Kim, named President of the Los Angeles-based company less than two weeks ago, made the figure the centerpiece of his first public appearance in the role. The event, held at Naver's Yeoksam office in southern Seoul, doubled as a preview of the company's strategic priorities for the year.
"A healthy creative ecosystem is an essential foundation for the company's long-term growth," Kim said. Webtoon plans to invest more than 70 billion won this year in new title development, creator education and welfare, and support for titles going global.
The $2.8 billion payout covers fees, IP licensing revenue and advertising income earned through the platform between 2021 and 2025. The company disclosed in 2021 that its top-earning creator pocketed 12 billion won in a single year.
Kim attributed the gains to a self-reinforcing cycle of creator support, content quality and user growth. That feedback loop, he said, is what has taken webtoons from a Korean internet curiosity to a genuine global entertainment phenomenon.
To keep it spinning, Webtoon is pushing into new areas this year. On the content side, it plans to expand video formats: Cuts, its short-form animation service, launched in Korea in September, with Video Episodes already running in North America and longer-form projects underway in Japan. It is also doubling down on growing what it calls "mega IP" — franchises built to expand across film, TV and beyond.
Canvas, its user-generated content platform, gets a revamp to deepen the creator pipeline by bringing more amateur talent into the fold. The company also plans to build out social features alongside its AI character chat service, which lets fans interact with characters from their favorite webtoons.
The push comes as Webtoon faces an uphill climb in its bid to crack Western markets. The company posted an operating loss of $63.5 million last year, though that was down from $100.7 million the prior year, and IP business revenue grew 31.8 percent.
Monthly active user numbers fell across Korea and international markets in the US, Europe and Southeast Asia, with Japan being the only exception.
Majority shareholder Naver fared little better. Its Q4 net profit dropped 35 percent year-on-year, weighed down by a 363.2 billion won impairment charge on Wattpad, the web fiction platform it acquired for roughly $600 million in 2021.
To turn things around, Webtoon has been busy lining up partnerships with Hollywood's biggest players. It teamed up with Disney, which took a roughly 2 percent equity stake in Webtoon Entertainment in January, on a jointly developed digital comics platform drawing on Marvel, "Star Wars" and Pixar titles. The platform is set to launch later this year.
A co-production deal with Warner Bros. Animation for 10 webcomic series, announced in November, is also in the pipeline, as is a film and TV slate with Margot Robbie's Lucky Chap Entertainment and Ron Howard and Brian Grazer's Imagine Entertainment.
moonkihoon@heraldcorp.com
