Webtoon (stylized in all caps) is a South Korean-American webtoon platform launched in 2004 by Naver Corporation, providing hosting for webtoons and compact digital comics. The platform, controlled by Naver and the Naver-SoftBank Group joint venture LY Corporation through a Delaware-domiciled, Los Angeles, California-headquartered holding company Webtoon Entertainment Inc., is free and can be found both on the web at Webtoons.com and on mobile devices available for both Android and iOS.
The platform first launched in South Korea as Naver Webtoon and then globally as Line Webtoon in July 2014, as the Naver brand is not well known outside of South 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 (). On December 18, 2018, Naver closed XOY and migrated all of its translated and original webtoons to Line Manga, its manga service that offers licensed manga. In 2019, Line Webtoon was changed to Webtoon in English; Spanish and French versions were launched.
The platform partners with creators to publish original content under the Webtoon Originals banner and hosts a number of other series on its self-publishing site, Canvas. Line Webtoon comics can be discovered through the "daily system" function, along with being read and downloaded for free on computers and both Android and iOS devices. In November 2020, Webtoon established a new subsidiary called Webtoon Studios for the purpose of licensing English-language properties. In August 2022, it was reported that Wattpad Webtoon Studios would expand with a new animation division. On September 16, 2025, The Walt Disney Company acquired a 2% equity stake in Webtoon Entertainment as part of an expanded collaboration for Disney-owned content adaptation between the two companies.
History
Digital comics (1997–2005) Webtoons are a type of episodic digital comic that originated in South Korea, usually meant to be read on smartphones. Posting comic content for free caused the $3 billion South Korean book and comic industry to rapidly collapse. While webtoons were mostly unknown outside of South Korea during their inception, there has been a surge in popularity internationally, thanks to the easy online accessibility and variety of free online comic content. Today, Webtoons make roughly $5.91 billion in just the U.S. alone. In the country, as digital comics have emerged as a popular medium, print publication of comics has decreased. The amount of material published in webtoon form has now reached an equal amount as that published offline.
Webtoons are a sub-menu of the gate companies that began with South Korean portal services Daum and Naver. The Naver site started in 1999, but it initially had a muted response as a hidden menu. Portal sites gathered a large online audience by offering digital comics as bait. Naver, taking advantage of the unexpected success of digital comics, placed webtoons in premium advertising spaces worth 300 million Korean won on its portal surface. This significantly increased their traffic. The key to their success in the portal market was digital comics.
Comics platform (2005–2014) Webtoon Entertainment, the serial comics platform, was founded in South Korea in 2005 by CEO Junkoo Kim, Naver. Since its launch in 2013, WEBTOON has become the most popular mobile app, catering to young adults and teens who enjoy reading comics and webcomic content. Similar webcomics can be found on these platforms, including Tapas, Pocket Comic, and others.
In 2004, they already had a market share of 80%. Kim Jun-gu, who introduced the "Bizarre Comics" genre, played a crucial role in Naver's rapid growth. In 2008, Naver introduced ads on webtoons, but they did not fairly share the ad revenue with artists.
In 2012, Naver did not participate in the legal crackdown on illegal sites that had been pirating their content for eight years. The first legal action was taken against a frame-link piracy site. In 2013, Lezhin Comics introduced a new form of payment called "Time Delay."
Naver adopted this payment model and, due to the free nature of its site, had to offer low royalties to artists. However, the influx of readers brought in significant income through search keywords, exceeding the revenue from selling comics, despite the cost of around 26,000 to 4,000 Korean Won ($20 to $3) per keyword.
Moreover, there were multiple ads. Naver absorbed the electronic publication rights of Korean artists for a small fee, which allowed them to monopolize works for a long time, even though they were not books. Mobile platforms were utilized for brand promotion, and international publishing rights were eventually obtained. Many aspiring creators submitted free comics, and the influx of free content was guaranteed as long as they were not part of the 0.1% that received a formal serialization.
Due to this discrimination, freelance creators could not unite. Some profited from this system, which improved the company's image thanks to a few star artists. The "vertical scrolling" method was used to fit more content, demanding over 100 cuts, which strained artists' health due to the excessive workload.
Kakao Webtoons' top artist, for example, died at the age of 37 due to overwork. The BBC reported on artists suffering from severe labor and exploitation. The "gate sites", which were initially established to support comics, became highly profitable.
In 2013, Webtoon launched Page Profit Share (PPS), which offered the artist a share of the advertising revenue for the first time.
Global launch (2014–present) 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. JunKoo Kim, Director and Head of the Line Webtoon Division at the time of the launch, stated that a partnership with established and up-and-coming American creators would serve to "expand [Line Webtoon's] selection of titles and help [the creators] expand their fan base." 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. 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.
The company's business model has expanded to include paid content sales, advertising revenue, and IP business revenue. When launched in 2013, Webtoon's programs generated 23.2 billion won. By 2022, these programs will have grown to 2.25 trillion won (USD $1.69 billion), an increase of more than 87 times.
In 2016, Webtoon Entertainment Inc. was incorporated under the Delaware General Corporation Law. In May 2020, it was announced that Webtoon was being transferred to Naver Webtoon Corp. After the purchase of Wattpad in early 2021 by Naver Corporation, both companies started to work together under Naver's content division.webtoonscorp.com In June 2024, following reorganizations, Webtoon Entertainment Inc. went public.
Partnerships
2013–2019 In April 2013, Naver Webtoon created a Profit Page Share program. In 2015, Line Webtoon partnered with American comics veteran Stan Lee, Image Comics co-founder Marc Silvestri, and make-up artist Michelle Phan in order to promote their service. Silvestri brought his long-running comics series, Cyberforce, to the platform. Various other established American comic book artists and cartoonists have also partnered with Line Webtoon over time, including Dean Haspiel (New Brooklyn), Katie Cook (Nothing Special), Seth Kushner and Shamus Beyale (The Brooklynite), and Tracy J. Butler (Lackadaisy).
In September 2016, Line Webtoon partnered with Patreon, a 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. 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. One month later, Naver signed with the Creative Artists Agency for film and television opportunities in the United States.
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.
In 2017, Line Webtoon and Legendary Comics expanded their partnership with the addition of John Barrowman's Acursian and season 2 of Firebrand. In 2018, they partnered with Noble Transmission and Common for the new Caster series. In 2019, Webtoon's digital content subsidiary Studio LICO collaborated with Big Hit Entertainment to release Save Me as part of the latter's BTS Universe (BU), which revolves around the output of South Korean boy band BTS. On October 15, 2019, Crunchyroll and Line Webtoon announced a partnership to produce animated works from Line Webtoon's catalog. The two will team up to tackle the distribution, licensing, and retail of the series produced by the partnership.
2020–present In October 2020, Webtoon and Archie Comics announced that the two companies would collaborate on the new Webtoon original series Archie Comics: Big Ethel Energy, which launched in September 2021.
In January 2021, Webtoon's parent company, Naver, announced that it would acquire the popular user-generated fiction platform Wattpad to provide more opportunities for creators. The acquisition was completed in May 2021. Wattpad had previously partnered with Webtoon in its 2020 Watty Awards Contest. In June 2021, Wattpad and Webtoon announced that the companies would merge their studio divisions to create Wattpad Webtoon Studios, a division of the company focused on developing Wattpad and Webtoon IP for film, television, and print publishing.
As of May 2023, around 300 projects from Webtoon and Wattpad Webtoon Studios are in development for entertainment adaptations. In August 2021, it was announced that Webtoon would be partnering with DC Entertainment to create standalone webcomics that "will appeal to all fans, without the need to know or read any previous stories."
The series is being adapted by Webtoon creators instead of established DC creators. Line Webtoon founder and CEO Junkoo Kim put it this way: "DC has allowed us to create content with their characters and world. The writers of Webtoon are creating content based on DC characters."
In November 2021, Webtoon announced a series of upcoming webcomics created in collaboration with BTS-management company Hybe and various artists from the label, including BTS, TXT, and Enhypen. These series, 7Fates: Chakho, Dark Moon: The Blood Altar, and The Star Seekers, launched on January 15, 16, and 17, 2022, respectively.
The first announced DC collaboration was a Batman-oriented title, Batman: Wayne Family Adventures. Additional series within this partnership, Vixen: NYC, Red Hood: Outlaws, and Zatanna & the Ripper, were announced in April 2022. Webtoon has also partnered with Rewriting Extinction, the global 12-month comic storytelling campaign supporting seven charities involved in biodiversity conservation and the climate crisis, featuring comics from the likes of Jane Goodall.