The hidden worries of popular Webtoon market

December 11, 2022

Wanyu Tsang, Yeonjung Jung

SEOUL - Webtoons have gained popularity not only in Korea, but also in the overseas market. The Webtoon market is estimated to be valued at 8.8 hundred million dollars, and has been expanding to Asia and European countries.

People watching webtoon and webtoon-based content on the subway.

With many popular webtoon-based contents gaining popularity, Webtoons have proven to become a good source of drama and films. The purpose of OTT platforms choosing to adapt webtoons into dramas is to save the cost of the production. Itaewon Class, Cheese in the Trap, We all Die, Real Beauty are all popular webtoon-adapted dramas.

Webtoon platform banner advertisement at COEX, Gangnam.

People walking past Webtoon advertisements at COEX, Gangnam.

Webtoon artists receive a fee from the platform. For example, WEBTOON platform has their Ad Revenue Sharing Program, creators can earn 50% from ads displayed on their series, since they hit 1,000 subscribers and 40,000 Global Monthly Page Views for your series. According to the survey done by KOCCA(Korea Creative Content Agency), a webtoonist made an average of 81.2 million won in 2021 if they worked all-year round and 56.7 million won if they produced at least one piece of content during the year. The income average doesn’t seem to be very high. However, the gap between the rich and the poor is large, the average income of webtoon artists is still higher than general office workers, and 80% of Webtoon artists are full-time job workers. Considering the long work-time and difficulties in creating one webtoon, (more than 25% of webtoon artists work 10-11 hours a day), the impressive salary sounds reasonable.

Except for the remuneration from platforms, subscription fee is another revenue for artists. People who want to check the latest stories could buy it for pre-reading. In addition, if their work has been published, income is earned from royalties from paper books. In recent years, many webtoons have been adapted to films and dramas and gained popularity. The copyright fees for secondary works (games, novels, etc.) and goods royalties can also be the income sources for webtoon artists.

People gathered at the Webtoon themed Café at Hongdae.

Various webtoon characters’ goods are sold in Webtoon themed Café.

Answers to the question, ‘How to be a webtoon artist?’ Basically, there are three common ways to become a webtoon artist. First, by open submission platforms, people can upload their work on webtoon platforms, such as Naver Webtoon Canvas. If their work gets popular and attracts certain amounts of subscribers, the platform might make an offer to continue the serial or agencies would sign the contract with the creator.

Second is attending the competitions. Webtoons companies often hold competitions, winners might gain a chance as a prize to have their work published.

But before becoming the webtoon artists, they have to obtain the abilities of drawing and storytelling. Many academic schools provide webtoon related courses for those who want to be webtoon artists, commonly they provide a 3 month course with basic storytelling theory and real practice of drawing on the tablet.

Webtoon academy in Sinchon, Seoul.

Student waiting for the elevator in Webtoon academy at Juyeop.

With the thriving of webtoon markets, more and more people dream of becoming webtoon artists. Webtoon academy teacher Lim Sung Jin said, “Students will continue in influx, competition between students also becomes more fierce. If some new changes don’t occur in the webtoon market, it will be difficult for students who come here to pursue a career in this field.”

Besides, not all genres of webtoons could make big success globally, only a few webtoon artists could gain huge popularity. According to the survey, the most popular genres are love/romantic and sci-fi, comedy and action genres are also many readers enjoy reading, others genres only account for 5.3% and 7.7% respectively.

“Another worry of the webtoon market is the income. Since it depends on the popularity, the webtoon business is similar to the idol entertainment industry.” from Kim Na Young, Webtoon academy TF/ former student.

Webtoon platforms used to sign contracts directly with creators, but after platforms established agency companies, creators need to pay the fee of agency, which makes webtoon artists’ income decrease. Especially, for the new entries, situations where platforms gain the majority of income often happen.

To improve the situation of market saturation, the industry might put more care into diverse genres of webtoons creators, support and build a systematic environment to protect new rookies.

Aspirant wearing a wrist guard while drawing webtoon pictures.