It’s not just Squid GameK-pop and Bong Joon-ho: South Korea has been making a place for itself in the global publishing industry for several years with the webtoon. The term originally covers a manhwathe Korean term for comic book, published online, but it now applies to graphic works originating in South Korea, or even elsewhere, that use certain codes.
In addition, the term webtoon, although it most often refers to works read online, on the screen of a smartphone or tablet, has been adopted when the stories are published in a printed format…
A billion industry
In December 2024, the Ministry of Culture and the government agency responsible for the cultural sector published a report on the economic results of the webtoon, for the year 2023. Over this period, the South Korean industry was worth 2.189 trillion won, or approximately €1.4 billion. The increase from one year to the next remains spectacular, since it is estimated at 360 billion won, or approximately €240 million.
According to data put forward by government organizations, growth would not slow down, quite the contrary: from 2021 to 2022, sales increased by 16.8%, compared to 19.7% between 2022 and 2023…
Online reading platforms dedicated to webtoons alone represent some 1.4 trillion won, or approximately €935 million, an increase of 25% compared to the previous year.
Like Japan, South Korea can count on the 9th art to develop cultural influence throughout the world. Moreover, the archipelago is the leading customer among the countries that import South Korean webtoons: it is followed by North America, China, Southeast Asia and finally Europe.
Unbeatable Naver?
Within the imposing government study (only available in Korean), we discover rather detailed statistics. These make it possible in particular to confirm the heavyweight position in the sector of Webtoon, an application belonging to the multinational Naver, sometimes nicknamed “Korean Google ».
Thus, 87.1% of readers surveyed as part of the report cite it among their preferred reading methods, far ahead of KakaoPage (37.6%), Series (which also belongs to Naver, 27.6%) or even Kakao Webtoon (20.8%). Note the surprising place occupied by Instagram (20.9%), owned by the American group Meta…
Authors in difficulty?
Who benefits from the webtoon? The government study also offers an overview of the contracts signed by the authors, a fairly rare occurrence. In 2023, the median annual income of artists would reach 38 million won, or around €25,000, which places it more or less within the scope of the median annual salary in South Korea (around €26,000). Around half of the 800 authors surveyed say they earn between 30 and 50 million won per year (from €25,000 to €33,000).
The Ministry of Culture notes that a change is observed in the nature of the contracts signed by authors, between 2022 and 2023: employment contracts are thus more frequent, compared to the order contract or the publishing contract more classic.
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Authors work on average 5.9 days per week, a stable figure, even if the percentage among them who never lifts their foot all week has fallen: a quarter of authors (26.9%), nevertheless, are housed in this brand… Furthermore, the daily working time reached 10.6 hours, an increase of 0.6 hours.
The study is accessible at this address.
Photography: webtoonist Lee Jong-beom, in 2023 (image, Republic of Korea, CC BY-SA 2.0)
By Antoine Oury
Contact : [email protected]
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