Type of site | Webtoon platform |
---|---|
Available in | Korean, Chinese, English, Spanish, French, Indonesian, Japanese, Thai, German |
Owner | Webtoon Entertainment Inc |
Created by | JunKoo Kim |
URL | comic www |
Commercial | Yes |
Registration | Optional |
Launched | 2004 (South Korea) 2014 English, Taiwanese, Thai 2015 Indonesian, Japanese (Xoy Ver.) 2019 Japanese (Line Manga Ver.), Spanish, French 2021 German |
Current status | Active |
Webtoon (stylized as WEBTOON) is a webtoon publishing portal launched by Naver Corporation in South Korea in 2004. The platform is called Naver Webtoon in Korean, LINE Manga in Japanese, both Dongman Manhua [1] and Webtoon in Chinese, and simply Webtoon in English, French, Indonesian, Spanish, Thai, and German.
The platform first launched in Korea as Naver Webtoon and then globally as LINE Webtoon in July 2014, as the Naver brand is not well known outside of Korea and some of its services are also not available outside of the country. The service gained a large amount of traction during the late 2000s and early 2010s. In 2016, Naver's webtoon service entered the Japanese market as XOY and the Chinese market as Dongman Manhua. [2] [3] On December 18, 2018, Naver closed down XOY in Japan and migrated all of its translated and original webtoons to LINE Manga, its manga service that offers licensed manga. [4] In 2019, LINE Webtoon was changed to WEBTOON in English and Spanish and French versions were launched. In 2020, WEBTOON transferred and serviced to Naver Webtoon Corp. In November 2020 WEBTOON established a new subsidiary called WEBTOON Studios [5] which is for licensing their English properties.
The platform partners with creators to publish original content under the WEBTOON ORIGINALS [6] banner and hosts a number of other series on its self-publishing site CANVAS. [7] LINE Webtoon comics can be discovered through the "daily system" function, along with being read and downloaded for free on computers and both iOS and Android devices. [8] [9]
LINE Webtoon was founded by JunKoo Kim in 2004, under the name "WEBTOON," after he watched the manhwa industry crash in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Kim, who grew up reading Japanese manga and Korean superhero comics, was looking for a way to get new comics created because he found that there were very few new comics coming out. Kim theorized that tall, scrollable comics would work well on the World Wide Web, as users were already used to scrolling through web pages. Because of this unusual layout, Kim initially had difficulty finding artists to create webtoons on his service, but he found that manhwa was willing to do something different because of the poor state of the local manhwa industry. [10] In May 2020, it was announced that WEBTOON was being transferred and serviced to Naver Webtoon Corp. [11]
On July 2, 2014, the LINE Webtoon website and mobile app were launched worldwide, allowing international artists to upload their own works to the service. Hundreds of webtoons are available in the self-publishing section of Webtoon, known as CANVAS, where artists can be paid based on page views. [12] Naver Corporation selected 42 webtoons (including Noblesse , Tower of God , and The God of High School ) and one new webtoon by an American artist to be available on the service in English at launch. [13] [14] According to 148 Apps, the service offered "plenty of content" at launch, as seven to ten webtoons were updated each day and the webtoons spanned various genres. [15]
In April 2013, Naver Webtoon created a Profit Page Share program. This compensation program that allow artists to get a larger profit through advertisements or their own personal stores, but is shared between NHN Corp and the artists themselves. [8] [16]
In 2015, LINE Webtoon partnered with US comics veteran Stan Lee, Image Comics co-founder Marc Silvestri, and make-up artist Michelle Phan in order to promote their service. [17] [18] Silvestri brought his long-running comics series Cyberforce to the platform. [19] Various other established American comic book artists and cartoonists have also partnered with LINE Webtoon over time, including Dean Haspiel (New Brooklyn), [20] Katie Cook (Nothing Special), [21] Seth Kushner and Shamus Beyale (The Brooklynite), [22] and Tracy J. Butler ( Lackadaisy ). [23]
In September 2016, LINE Webtoon partnered with the Patreon crowdfunding service, incorporating a "Patreon button" in the "Discover" portion of the website. This function creates an easier channel for readers and artists to mutually communicate. [24] Naver invested US$3.6 million and $1,000 every following month for webtoon creators who reached a certain threshold of activity and popularity with a Patreon page. [23] [25] One month later, Naver signed with the Creative Artists Agency for film and television opportunities in the United States. [26]
LINE Webtoon also partnered with DeviantArt in the second half of 2016, in the form of the "Artist Alley Tour". The companies were active at four Comic Cons: Boston Comic Con, Baltimore Comic Con, Rose City Comic Con, and New York Comic Con. Here, LINE Webtoon and DeviantArt held discussion panels, "Artist Alley Sponsorships", live draw events, influencer and creator demonstration areas, and on-site contests. [27] [28]
In 2017 LINE Webtoon and Legendary Comics expanded their partnership with the addition of John Barrowman's Acursian and season 2 of Firebrand. [29] [30]
In 2018 included partnering with Noble Transmission and Common for the new Caster series. [31]
In 2019 WEBTOON's digital content subsidiary LICO collaboratively produced with Big Hit Entertainment to release Save Me as part of the former's BTS Universe (BU) which revolves around the output of South Korean boy band BTS. [32]
On October 15, 2019, Crunchyroll and LINE Webtoon announced a partnership to produce animated works of LINE Webtoon's catalog. The two will team up to tackle the distribution, licensing, and retail of the series produced from the partnership. [33]
On January 19, 2021, WEBTOON's parent company NAVER acquired the popular user-written story site Wattpad. Wattpad will be partnering with WEBTOON—which it had already done in its 2020 Watty Awards Contest—to provide more opportunities for creators. [34]
The userbase of WEBTOON grew rapidly after the service was released globally, with 10 million people reading on the platform daily and 35 million people monthly. [35] In Asia, several webtoons receive 5 million views per week. [35] In 2016, 42% of the webtoon creators on LINE Webtoon were female, as were 50% of its 6 million active daily readers. [36] [37] 75% of the users in North America are 24 or younger and 64% are female. [38] [39]
As of July 1, 2019, WEBTOON has grown to more than 100 billion views annually. [40]
Naver Corporation has held various comics competitions through its WEBTOON service. In 2015, LINE launched the "Challenge League", a recurring competition where amateur artists have the chance to become an "official LINE webtoon artist", as well as win tens of thousands of US Dollars. Over 19,000 people joined the first English-language Challenge League in February 2015, which was won by Stephen McCranie's Space Boy. [41] Local Challenge Weeks were also held; the first Thai Challenge League was held in April 2015 and had a grand prize of 1 million baht. [42]
In June 2015, Naver Corporation hosted the Science Fiction Comics Contest, a global competition with a grand prize of US$30,000. JunKoo Kim called science fiction, the theme of the competition, "both the broadest and fastest-growing area in comics and entertainment, [and thus] a natural fit as the genre for our second comics contest." This contest had over 800 entrants and was won by Srinitybeast's Overdrive. [43] [44]
In September 2016, WEBTOON partnered up with Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment to launch the Superhero Comics Contest, which offered a grand prize of US$30,000 to the first place winner, as well as a featured offer and advice from Stan Lee and POW! Entertainment. Featured offers were also given out to second, third, and fourth place winners. [45] The Badguys by Luke Lancaster and Orlando Caicedo was selected as the grand winner, and the contest noticeably gave rise to uru-chan's popular series UnOrdinary, which received fourth. [46]
In November 2018, WEBTOON hosted their Discover Creator Contest. The winner, Kris Nguyen's Cape of Spirits, received a grand total of US$80,000 and an exclusive contract for the series. [47]
Between April 2020 and July 2020, WEBTOON ran an interactive contest series titled WEBTOON GREENLiGHT wherein nine titles were selected and pitched to readers. The readers then voted (by liking the series' episodes) on which series would be "greenlit" as new Original series. Within one week, each series had to reach a record threshold of 60,000 likes on its third episode in order to be "greenlit" for publication. [48] All nine series succeeded and are set to be released in 2021. [49]
On February 28, 2020 "The Short Story Contest" was announced. It ran from April 30 until June 30, 2020 and was split into two categories: "Brain" and "Heart." The grand prize winners each category would get US$15,000, an animated short, and a featured contract. This was also the first contest where only short stories were allowed. The requirements were 3 to 5 chapters and 30+ panels per episode. [50] The grand prize, silver, and bronze contest winners were published in two anthologies: The HEART Anthology, which began releases in September 2020, [51] and the BRAIN Anthology, which began releases in October 2020. [52] The grand prize winners were Kotopopi's The Ladder for "Heart," and Marvin W.'s The Monster Under My Bed for "Brain." [53]
WEBTOON has offered many promotional reading contests where users can win free coins. Depending on the event, coins are offered either by reading episodes from specific series or by logging in every day. These events include the Read Something Every Day Challenge, Climb the Tower Challenge, CANVAS Reading Challenge, Summer Reading Event!, Survival Mode, Royal Romance, WEBTOON Obsessed, 5 Day Survival, Trick or Treat!, The 5 Day Hunt, and No Sleep November.
Various movies, Korean dramas, animated series, and video games have been produced based on webtoons released on Naver Corporation's service. According to JunKoo Kim in 2014, "a total of 189 books, videos and games based on Naver webtoons have either been produced or are in the process of being made." [14] However, LINE Webtoon's first entry of video content in the United States came in 2016, in the form of an animated film based on Noblesse . [54]
On November 7, 2016, Air Seoul announced that it had collaborated with LINE Webtoon to produce pre-flight safety demonstration videos. Some of the works featured in these include Denma , The Sound of Heart , and Noblesse . [55]
In July 2019, WEBTOON produced their first promotional animated short series from one of their exclusive originals, My Giant Nerd Boyfriend. [56] A second set of promotions, from the work Let's Play, was released in September, 2019. [57]
In October 2019, Crunchyroll revealed on Instagram that it would be collaborating with WEBTOON to release animated series based on selected webtoons as a part of its "Crunchyroll Originals" project. In February 2020, Crunchyroll announced that Noblesse, Tower of God , and The God of High School were chosen for later release. [58]
There are numerous Webtoons based on YA novels, including Renée Ahdieh's The Wrath and the Dawn, Rebecca Schaeffer's Not Even Bones, Hanna Alkaf's The Weight of the Sky, Victoria Lee's The Fever King, Nicki Pau Preto's Crown of Feathers and more.
Webtoons have been made into TV shows and movies.
Title | Author | Format | Premiere | Notes | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Welcome to Convenience Store (와라! 편의점) | Ji Kang-min | Animated series | January 17, 2012 | Broadcast on Tooniverse | [60] |
The Cliff (절벽귀) | Oh Seong-dae | Omnibus film | June 5, 2013 | Adapted in the first episode | [61] |
Fashion King (패션왕) | Kim Hee-min | Film | November 6, 2014 | YLAB, Nomad Films | [62] |
Dr. Frost (닥터 프로스트) | Lee Jong-beom | TV series | November 23, 2014 | Broadcast on OCN | [63] [64] |
Orange Marmalade (오렌지 마말레이드) | Seok-woo | TV series | May 15, 2015 | Broadcast on KBS2 | [65] [66] |
We Broke Up (우리 헤어졌어요) | Ryu Chae-rin | Web series | June 29, 2015 | Broadcast on Naver TV and YouTube | [67] [68] |
Noblesse (노블레스) | Son Jeho and Lee Kwangsu | Animation | December 4, 2015 | DVD release by Woongjin Thinkbig Funnism | [69] |
ONA | February 4, 2016 | Crunchyroll release | [70] | ||
Anime | October 7, 2020 | [71] [72] | |||
Cheese in the Trap (치즈인더트랩) | Soonkki | TV series | January 4, 2016 | Broadcast on tvN | [73] [74] [75] |
Film | March 14, 2018 | Exclusive premiere in CGV theaters | [76] | ||
Lucky Romance (운빨로맨스) | Kim Dal-nim | TV series | May 25, 2016 | Broadcast on MBC | [77] |
Let's Fight, Ghost (싸우자귀신아) | Im Man-sup | TV series | July 11, 2016 | Broadcast on tvN | [78] [79] [80] |
The Sound of Your Heart (마음의 소리) | Jo Seok | Web series | November 7, 2016 | Broadcast on Naver TV and KBS2 | [81] |
ONA | September 20, 2018 | Naver WEBTOON YouTube Channel release | |||
Web Series | October 29, 2018 | Netflix release | [82] | ||
Tales of the Unusual (기기괴괴) | Oh Seong-dae | TV Special | April 29, 2017 | Adapts the short story My Wife's Memories in an episode | [83] |
ONA | February 21, 2019 | Naver WEBTOON YouTube Channel release | |||
Animated Film | September 9, 2020 | Adapts the short story Beauty Water | [84] [85] | ||
Do It One More Time (한번 더 해요) | Hong Seung-pyo and Kim Hye-yeon | TV series | October 13, 2017 | Broadcast on KBS2 | [86] [87] [88] |
unTOUCHable (언터처블) | massstar | Web series | November 20, 2017 | Broadcast on Sohu TV | [89] |
Along with the Gods (신과함께) | Joo Ho-min | Film | December 20, 2017 | Realies Pictures, Dexter Studios | [90] |
Film | August 1, 2018 | [91] | |||
Student A (여중생 A) | Heo 5 Pa 6 | Film | June 20, 2018 | Lotte Entertainment | [92] |
Girls of the Wild's (소녀더와일즈) | Hun and Zhena | TV series | July 23, 2018 | Broadcast on Hunan TV | [93] |
My ID is Gangnam Beauty (내 ID는 강남미인!) | Gi Meng-gi | TV series | July 27, 2018 | Broadcast on JTBC | [94] [95] [96] [97] [98] |
Before We Knew It (文学処女) | Nakano Mayaka | TV series | September 9, 2018 | Broadcast on MBS and TBS | [99] [100] |
Tale of Fairy (계룡선녀전) | Dol Bae | TV series | November 5, 2018 | Broadcast on tvN | [101] |
Hell Is Other People (타인은 지옥이다) | Kim Yong-ki | TV series | August 31, 2019 | Broadcast on OCN | [102] [103] [104] |
Pegasus Market (쌉니다 천리마마트) | Kim Gyu-sam | TV series | September 20, 2019 | Broadcast on tvN | [105] [106] [107] |
Lookism (외모지상주의) | Park Tae-joon | Web series | September 26, 2019 | Broadcast on Tencent Video | [108] |
The Tale of Nokdu (녹두전) | Hye Jin-yang | TV series | September 30, 2019 | Broadcast on KBS2 | [109] |
Eggnoid | Archie the RedCat | Film | December 5, 2019 | No US release yet | [110] [111] [112] |
Welcome (어서와) | Go A-ra | TV series | March 25, 2020 | Broadcast on KBS2 | [113] [114] |
Tower of God (신의 탑) | Lee Jong-hui | Anime | April 1, 2020 | Crunchyroll release | [115] [116] |
Odd Girl Out (소녀의 세계) | Morangg | Web series | April 22, 2020 | Broadcast on Naver TV, V LIVE, and YouTube | [117] |
Boy and Girl Straight Out of Cartoon (만찢남녀) | Nimni | Web series | June 25, 2020 | Broadcast on YouTube and MBC | [118] [119] |
The God of High School (갓 오브 하이스쿨) | Park Yong-je | Anime | July 6, 2020 | Crunchyroll release | [120] [121] [116] [122] |
Love Revolution (연애혁명) | 232 | Web series | September 1, 2020 | Broadcast on KakaoTV and Naver SERIES | [123] [124] |
Marry Me! (マリーミー!) | Miku Yuki | TV series | October 3, 2020 | Broadcast on TV Asahi and ABC TV | [125] [126] |
True Beauty (여신강림) | Yaongyi | TV series | December 9, 2020 | Broadcast on tvN | [127] [128] [129] |
Sweet Home (스위트홈) | Kim Carn-by and Hwang Young-chan | Web series | December 18, 2020 | Netflix release | [130] [131] [132] [133] |
She Would Never Know (선배, 그 립스틱 바르지 마요) | Elize | TV series | January 18, 2021 | Adaptation of a Web Novel | [134] |
My Roommate Is a Gumiho (간 떨어지는 동거) | Na | TV series | May 26, 2021 | Broadcast on tvN | [135] |
Nevertheless (알고있지만) | Jung Seo | TV series | June 19, 2021 | Netflix release | [136] |
Now at Our School (지금 우리 학교는) | Joo Dong-geun | TV series | 2021 | Netflix release | [137] [138] |
Rest in Peace (고인의 명복) | Jo Joo-hee | TBA | TBA | [139] | |
Vigilante (비질란테) | CRG, Kim Gyu-sam | Film | TBA | TBA | [107] [105] |
The Romantic, Fake Marriage (완벽한 쇼윈도) | TBA | TBA | TBA | Adaptation of the Web Novel by Rose Bean. | [140] [141] |
A Good Day to be a Dog (오늘도 사랑스럽개) | Lee Hey | TBA | TBA | [142] |
Daum is a South Korean web portal. It offers many Internet services to web users, including a popular free web-based e-mail, messaging service, forums, shopping, news and webtoon service. The word "daum" means "next", meaning "many sounds".
Manhwa is the general Korean term for comics and print cartoons. Outside Korea, the term usually refers to South Korean comics, although the comics industry is emerging in North Korea as well. Manhwa is a notable part of South Korean culture.
Webtoons are a type of digital comic that originated in South Korea. While webtoons were mostly unknown outside of the country during their inception, there has been a surge in popularity internationally thanks in great part to most manhwa being read on smartphones.
Naver is a South Korean online platform operated by Naver Corporation. It debuted in 1999 as the first web portal in South Korea to develop and use its own search engine. It was also the world's first operator to introduce the comprehensive search feature, which compiles search results from various categories and presents them in a single page. Naver has since added a multitude of new services ranging from basic features such as e-mail and news to the world's first online Q&A platform Knowledge iN.
NAVER Corporation is a South Korean mass media and technology conglomerate headquartered in Seongnam that operates the search engine Naver. Naver established itself as an early pioneer in the use of user-generated content through the creation of the online Q&A platform Knowledge iN. Naver also manages global mobile services such as the mobile messenger LINE, video messenger Snow, and group communication service BAND.
Crunchyroll, Inc. is an American distributor, publisher, production and licensing company focused on streaming anime, manga, and dorama. Founded in 2006 by a group of University of California, Berkeley graduates, Crunchyroll's distribution channel and partnership program delivers content to over 100 million registered users worldwide. Crunchyroll is a subsidiary of Otter Media, which is a subsidiary of AT&T's WarnerMedia. Sony announced in December 2020 that its subsidiary Funimation would acquire Crunchyroll from AT&T for approximately US$1.175 billion . Crunchyroll has offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Lausanne, Paris, Berlin, and Chișinău, and is a member of The Association of Japanese Animations (AJA). "Crunchyroll Hime", also known as "Hime", is the official mascot of Crunchyroll.
Noblesse is a South Korean manhwa released as a webtoon written by Son Jeho and illustrated by Lee Kwangsu. Noblesse was first posted on Naver Corporation's webtoon platform Naver Webtoon in December 2007, and was concluded in January 2019; it was among the first webtoons to receive an official English translation at the launch of Line Webtoon in July 2014. It has been adapted into an aeni in 2015 and an original net animation (ONA) in 2016, and an anime television series by Production I.G aired from October to December 2020 on Crunchyroll.
Welcome to Convenience Store is a South Korean webtoon set in a convenience store, created by Ji Kang-min. The webtoon began in February 2008 and received an award at the Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival that same year. A paperback version was released on October 23, 2008.
Tower of God is a South Korean manhwa released as a webtoon written and illustrated by S.I.U. It has been serialized in Naver Corporation's webtoon platform Naver Webtoon since June 2010, with the individual chapters collected and published by Young Com into six volumes as of May 2021. Tower of God received official English translations by Line Webtoon beginning in July 2014.
The Sound of Your Heart is a South Korean webtoon series written and illustrated by Jo Seok. The webtoon was first released on the Naver WEBTOON internet portal in 2006. In 2007, the first print volume was released and The Sound of Your Heart was adapted into a TV series of the same name in 2015. It was completed in July 2020.
KakaoPage is a monetized content platform optimized for mobile devices, launched by the Kakao Corp. in 2013 and currently owned by its subsidiary Kakao Entertainment. The service launched on April 9, 2013 as a digital content marketplace allowing brands and individuals to create and distribute visual, audio and written content such as manhwa and genre fiction. It entered the Indonesian market in 2018 and Taiwan in 2020.
Tapas, formerly known as Tapastic and originally known as Comic Panda, is a webtoon and prose publishing website and app. It was created by South Korean entrepreneur Chang Kim in 2012, who is the CEO of the company behind Tapas, called Tapas Media.
The God of High School is a South Korean manhwa released as a webtoon written and illustrated by Yongje Park. It has been serialized in Naver Corporation's webtoon platform Naver Webtoon since April 2011, with the individual chapters collected and published by Imageframe under their Root label into one volume as of April 2020. The God of High School received official English translations by Line Webtoon beginning in July 2014.
"Bongcheon-Dong Ghost" is a short South Korean horror webtoon created by Horang in 2011. Part of the The Vault of Horror: A Collection of Nightmares , "Bongcheon-Dong Ghost" is an urban ghost story that uses animation to deliver jump scares. The webcomic went viral shortly after its release.
Mega Monster is a South Korean TV series production company and a subsidiary of Kakao Entertainment.
Solo Leveling is a South Korean web novel written by Chugong. It was serialized in Kakao's digital comic and fiction platform KakaoPage since July 25, 2016, and later published by D&C Media under their Papyrus label since November 4, 2016. The novel has been licensed in English by Webnovel under the title Only I Level Up.
Studio N is a subsidiary of Naver Webtoon launched in August 2018 that produces drama films and television series based on stories from their Korean library of webtoons and web novels. The subsidiary is headed by Kwon Mi-kyung, who was a former head of the film business division of CJ ENM. Kwon describes the studio as a "IP bridge company that collaborates with existing film and drama production companies".
True Beauty, also known as The Secret of Angel and other names, is a South Korean WEBTOON written and illustrated by Yaongyi. First published in Naver Webtoon since April 2, 2018, it centers on a young woman who mastered the art of makeup in her teenage years in order to transform herself into a gorgeous "goddess" after being bullied and discriminated because of being perceived as ugly.
The Sound of Magic is an upcoming South Korean television series, based on webtoon Annarasumanara, it is directed by Kim Seong-yoon and written by Kim Min Jeong. The original Netflix series, starring Ji Chang-wook, Hwang In-youp and Choi Sung-eun, is about Yoon Ah-yi, a girl who wants to grow up too fast, and Rieul, a mysterious magician who is a grown up but wants to remain as a child. The series will be released worldwide by Netflix in 190 countries.
Yumi's Cells is an upcoming South Korean television series directed by Lee Sang-yeob and starring Kim Go-eun, Ahn Bo-hyun, Lee Yu-bi and Park Ji-hyun. Based on eponymous webtoon, it is a cell-based psychological romance that unravels the daily life of an ordinary office worker Yumi through the eyes of the cells in her head. It is slated to premiere on tvN in 2021 and will also be simultaneously released via streaming media TVING.