Characteristics of Korean Webtoon and Its Expandability
for Media Mixed and Globalization
Kim, Hae Yoon
Dongseo University
47 Jurye-ro, Sasang-gu,
Busan City, Korea
Abstract
The definition of “webtoon” is comics that are distributed and consumed through the Web. The webtoon is a new genre invented in Korea for online comics, and it is considered a unique kind of comic in the global cartoon market. The solid infrastructure of the Internet and increase of digital cultural consumption created the possibility to provide a platform for webtoons and its production. Webtoons have become popular among Koreans. They have caused a cross-media phenomenon, which means webtoon content is transformed to other content in such industries as movies and TV dramas. Cross-media phenomena of webtoons have developed since the middle of the 2000s. A characteristic of Korean webtoons is high-speed production. The viewers of webtoons read daily webtoon series and share their opinions simultaneously. This could influence the webtoon artists and their stories. This is one of the unique characteristics of Korean webtoons. The goal is to study the characteristics of the Korean webtoon and its expandability for globalization.
Keywords-component; webtoon, Hallyu, Korean wave, Korean pop culture, web comic
1. Introduction
In the 1990s, the Korean government recognized the potential of the cultural industry and started to focus on culture as an exportable product. From this turning point, Korean pop culture has begun to spread vigorously to China and other Asian countries and then throughout the world. Korean TV drama first started Hallyu and influenced the success of K-pop and K-movies. As successful Hallyu that began from Korean TV drama, K-pop and K-movies expended to games and webtoons. The webtoon is a unique form of online comic strips created in Korea. Webtoons, online Korean comics released on a regular schedule, much like tv programs or dramas, started in South Korea in the early 2000s. Since then, they have garnered great popularity not only in South Korea, but abroad as well, sparking the trend of translated webtoons in languages such as English, Mandarin, and Indonesian (https://www.10mag.com/10-korean-webtoons-everyone-should-read). Because the webtoon is considered by the Korean government as the next “killer” content, it has started to invest in webtoons, as well as investing in cultural industry since the 1990s. Webtoons have been successfully reproduced in TV dramas, movies, or musicals to generate additional revenue. In this work, the characteristics of the webtoon and its mixed-media expandability and globalization are studied.
2. Characteristics of Webtoons
2.1. History of the Webtoon
A webtoon is a digital cartoon that is designed to be viewed in Internet media. “Webtoon” refers to digital comics seen on the Web, and it is a term created by combining the words “website” and “cartoon.” The difference between the type of the format and the way of viewing distinguishes web comics and web cartoons. In recent years, ”web cartoons” and “web comics” have been used interchangeably to represent the digital comic book. Webtoons were launched in 2003 on a portal site in Korea called Daum, after providing a digital comic service. In 2003, Daum turned a corner with "Cartoon in the world," and, with the launch of large portal sites in the webtoon market, WebtoTun is coming to another turning point (https://www.joinusworld.org/community/9156- webtoon-a-new-trend-in-korea-thanks-to-the-internet). It was designed for reading on the Web and was the first digital comics to be read in a way involving scrolling down with no borders between cuts. In 2008, the number of high-speed Internet subscribers in Korea was more than 15 million, and the number of smartphone users exceeded 10 million in 2011. As the webtoon infrastructure emerges, webtoon viewers have dramatically increased in Korea. Since 2014, webtoons have begun to expand to global market to become a vital killer content. The webtoon industry in South Korea was estimated to be worth $153.5 million in 2014, according to an estimate by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Research shows there are 4,661 webtoon artists drawing 4,440 webtoons and publishing them through online platforms, such as the country's largest portal services Naver and Daum (https://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/asia/2015/06/korea-latest-cultural-phenomenon-150630055653457.html).
2.2. Characteristics of Webtoons
Webtoons, which originated in Korea, are different from the United States and European webcomics. All of them are designed to publish digital comics on the Internet. However, the webtoon develops and produces a new comic format based on the characteristics of the Internet media. For this reason, the webtoon is considered one of the unique Korean types of content. The most significant feature is the touch scrolling in the way of reading it.
In the early 2000s, people began to scan published comic books and share them illegally through file-sharing websites. The image quality of scanned comics was not satisfying, but they were free. It was a significant blow to the already faltering comic industry, with the market shrinking to $389 million. Fortunately, the industry began to see business opportunities. Cartoonists started to draw bespoke, original content specifically for online consumption — designed in a way that people can easily read by scrolling down the screen. Now, a new generation of webtoons, taking full advantage of the digital space, features sound and visual effects (https://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/asia/2015/06/korea-latest-cultural-phenomenon-150630055653457.html). Webtoons update the story daily, weekly, or monthly, like a TV drama. The users can freely comment on the board. Webtoon creators reflect users’ opinions on webtoon stories. One of the most outstanding features of webtoons is that users can be involved in the process of creating storytelling.
One of the webtoon characteristics is that the genre has a broad spectrum. It can also be characterized by the vast audience of the users' target layer. The strength about webtoons is that they are not limited to one genre. There are numerous attempts to create a new webtoon in a different format. (http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/culture/culture_general/746428.html#csidx80d570b90e64861bb3ae5c4ced46fbf). The main genres shown in webtoons are drama, fantasy, comedy, action, a slice of life, romance, heartwarming tales, thrillers, sports, sci-fi, etc. Also, webtoons are free and have the advantage of being easily accessible from a smartphone, regardless of time and place. Webtoons also use the media feature of digital comics to include sound effects or multimedia effects. These features are a significant factor of success in developing the format and content of digital comics in the global market. They are normally free, because portal sites just want to increase the view rates, which influences advertisement profits. Because they were fun and free, there was huge popularity among not only Koreans, but also people worldwide (https://www.joinusworld.org/community/2263-the-way-to-view-official-webtoon-of-korea/).
3. Webtoon Expandability for Media Mixed
The modern comic industry is not only generating direct revenue from selling the content, but also expanding industrial values to produce more-substantial amounts of income. For example, there are approximately 50 movies produced by Marvel Comics, with a $29,629,193,449 film turnover. With the big success of Marvel, the webtoon industry is focusing on extending its content from webcomics to television dramas, movies, games, and musicals. The government hopes that webtoons will become the next generation of killer content and used as a medium for one-source multiuse (OSMU). More than 50 webtoons has been recreated into more value-added dramas and movies, with some even remade into games. According to an industry report, the sales of character products and office supplies went through the roof after the drama went on air (https://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/asia/2015/06/korea-latest-cultural-phenomenon-150630055653457.html). The first intellectual property rights movie "Apartment" was created in 2006 by the webtoon artist Kang Full. In 2010, the webtoon "Moss" was the first to be successful in recording the box office, which was 3.3 million tickets sold. Since then, with the increasing number of successes in webtoon intellectual property (IP) movies, the webtoon has become a major source of revenue creation. Webtoon IP TV dramas, which began in 2006, have been growing into reproducing 15 webtoon IP TV dramas in 2015. Webtoon IP games began in 2007. The success of the webtoon IP game in 2015 is the most active extension of webcomics. Webtoon IP is also actively expanding into the fields of publishing, animation, theater, musicals, and advertising. In the early days, the expansion of IP was carried out in a single shipment, which spread radially over a certain point, transforming it into a stereoscopic webtoon IP content. Webtoon IP is the beginning of cultural values and constitutes an extensive content ecosystem encompassing the meaning of industrial, social, and technological values (according to a 2017 graphic novel industry white paper).
Table 1. Webtoon IP media mixed-content production by year
webtoon IP movies
|
2006 |
2008 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017.8 |
total |
|
2 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
22 |
webtoon IP TV drama
|
2006 |
2007 |
2010 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017.8 |
total |
|
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
6 |
14 |
9 |
1 |
40 |
webtoon IP games
|
2007 |
2008 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017.8 |
total |
|
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
6 |
14 |
1 |
27 |
Source: 2017 graphic novel industry white paper
The expansion of webtoons to other media has proved to be a good practice over the past decade. Webtoons extend to mixed media and have the following strengths. First, they can choose the storytelling that has been verified by the webtoon, with proven maturity and production. Second, considering the diverse genre selection in webtoons, the range of creating new content is broad. Third, the subject matter of the work is high quality because the poetry of the theme is higher. Finally, because the webtoon is a visual storytelling method, it is beneficial to extend it to visual media. Because of the proliferation of the webtoon's industrial value, the characteristics of the content of webtoons are becoming pervasive in society. The cycle of the work series is unique to the culture of webtoons, with a consumption environment that touches social poetry and enables countless readers to enjoy the story and interact at the same time. The reason for the development of webtoons is to connect with the culture of network communication, such as unconventional reproductions and the proliferation of multilateral content, and it showed remarkable adhesion to genres and media (according to a2017 graphic novel industry white paper).
4. Webtoon Expandability for Globalization
Based on the growth of the domestic market, the Webtoon industry has begun to expand its boundaries since 2014 to the global market. The global expansion of webtoons first started in China and Southeast Asia, and the webtoon is now showing its achievements in Japan and the United States. In 2015, the exports were $25,560,000 USD. In the past four years, exports increased by 20% each year, spreading the format of digital comics, which previously was almost never in other countries (http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/culture/culture_general/746428.html#csidxa6ec6cadcdea9f490829cf2fda23dea). Naver,, one of the largest portal sites in Korea, started to provide Line Webtoon services for the globalization of the webtoon. The webtoon products, which were becoming known to foreign viewers, were translated into English and Chinese. Starting on April 1, 2014, the global users of Line reached approximately 400,002,000 people. There are more than 50 million Japanese users, and 24 million people are following in the United States. Lately, new subscribers from Asia and South America appear to be excellent candidates for using the function of the Hallyu content network (Kocca FOCUS, Volume 2014-09).
Table 2. Global market sizes of printed cartoons and webtoons (unit: million USD)
|
Year/market size |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2109 |
|
Printed cartoon |
72.01 |
71.08 |
64.79 |
63.51 |
61.97 |
60.36 |
58.65 |
56.87 |
54.97 |
|
Webtoon |
3.30 |
4.26 |
4.57 |
5.38 |
5.91 |
6.47 |
7.07 |
7.71 |
8.40 |
Source: Mang, Ha Kyung, “Webtoon Hallyu will win over global comics market.”
Table 2 shows that the market for webtoon continues to grow by comparing them with comics published in the global market. As the global market for webtoons rises, domestic webtoon content service providers are actively expanding into the global market by providing platform services or providing webtoon content. Global expansion is inevitable, because the webtoon industry is one of the most rapidly growing types of content in the world. The webtoon is a uniquely Korean culture, which has quickly developed into a "snack culture" that consumes cultural content. The term "snack culture" refers to the cultural behaviors of "consuming information and cultural contents in a short time rather more engaging in deep reading," and this snack culture has been the representative cultural scene of Korea (Wonho Jang, Jung Eun Song, “Webtoon as a New Korean Wave in the Process of Glocalization,” Kritika Kultura, 29 (2017): 187). These different webtoon cultures can be an important element of competitiveness in the global marketplace. The success of webtoon IP movies, TV dramas, and games will increase the interest in and awareness of webtoons. This synergy can be expected in the global expansion of the webtoon.
The potential growth in the webtoon market has been deemed immeasurable, because other media outlets, such as movies, dramas, books, and more, take webtoon stories and reinvent them. The K-drama “Misaeng” was based on a webtoon with the same title. With their ever-growing global popularity, webtoons may just be the next Korean cultural phenomenon to take over American society after K-pop (https://www.koreaboo.com/stories/americas-new-cultural-take-manhwa-aka-korean-comics/). Smartphone usage for reading webtoons is constantly increasing. As users in the global market increase their smartphone usage, they are addressing important infrastructure issues that enable them to enjoy webtoons. According to the KT Economic Research Institute's 2015 1st half IT Report, Korea has a smartphone diffusion rate of 83.0%, 4th in the world after the United Arab Emirates (90.8%), Singapore (87.7%), and Saudi Arabia (86.1%). Other countries with significant consumption of comics have lower diffusion rates for smartphones: Hong Kong (78.9), Taiwan (78.3), China (74.0), U.K. (71.1), U.S. (70.7), Germany (64.7), France (62.0), and Japan (33.5) (Research Center for Korean Studies vol. 16, “Korean webtoons: Explaining Growth”). The diversity of the webtoon genre is also one of the key factors in gaining a competitive advantage in the global marketplace. Each country has a different culture and preferred genre of webtoon. With the expansion in Asia, the domestic webtoon is centered on romance and fantasy; in North America and Europe, it is expected that the genre of webcomics will be different, because the perspective is different from that of Asia. One of the webtoon characteristics is that the viewers can be involved in the storytelling by commenting on the board. This interaction between Webtoon creators and viewers can make the viewers be immersed in the content. This creative way of using this characteristic is not being utilized in the global market because of its practical limitations. This interactive process of creating webtoons can be a competitive element to expand to a global market through a localization strategy. The webtoon is a product of Korean popular culture that is made in Korea and has a very high potential for global expandability. If the global strategy and the government's support to maximize the potential are realized, webtoon content will grow in the future, as did such content as K-pop.
5. Conclusion
The webtoon is unique Korean public content, created using the Korean Internet infrastructure and its flexible cultural characteristic that it quickly embraces the digital culture. It has seen a remarkable industrial growth in the more than 10 years since the webtoon began. Successful webtoon content proves the potential for media expandability, because it can be reproduced in movies, TV dramas, and game formats to generate secondary revenue. The growth of the domestic webtoon industry has expanded from 2014 to the global market. Despite the different languages and cultures in many countries, webtoon content is growing in global markets. A webtoon is a form that is optimized to be enjoyed on a digital device. It has formed a new digital culture phenomenon called "snack culture" in which cultural content is quickly consumed. The interactive webtoon environment of webtoon artists and viewers is unique. This characteristic of webtoon culture is an essential factor to expand globally. If webtoon content providers and governments can maximize these characteristics of webtoons for industrial competitiveness, the webtoon should become a killer content for the next generation.
References
[1] Hyung-Gu Lynn, “Korean Webtoons: Explaining Growth,” Research Center for Korean Studies, Kyushu, vol.16, .2016
[2] Wonho Jang and Jung Eun Song, “Webtoon as a New Korean Wave in the Process of Globalization,'' Kritika Kultura 29 (2017): –187a, Ateneo de Manila University., Manila, 2017, pp. 168-187.
[3] 2017 graphic novel industry white paper, Overseas Content Market trends, No. 1, Na :, Korea Creative Content Agency, 2017. 07
[4] Sook Kim, Overseas Content Market trends, Vol 2014-09, Na : KOCCA FOCUS, 2014
[5] https://www.koreaboo.com/stories/americas-new-cultural-take-manhwa-aka-korean-comics, K. Rose, in press.
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