Naver Webtoon recorded 180 million monthly active users. It has been five years since the spin-off. At the time of the spinoff in 2017, the company had 46 million users. Annual transactions also increased during the same period. Last year, annual transactions amounted to 1.5 trillion won. It more than quadrupled from about 240 billion won at the time of the spinoff in 2017.
Celebrating the 5th anniversary of its spin-off, Naver Webtoon announced such achievements on the 2nd.
Previously, Naver Webtoon was spun off in May 2017 after going through Naver's In-house Independent Company (CIC) in 2015.
Naver Webtoon explained that it has been expanding its storytech platform model to the global market, which has proven its success in South Korea over the past five years. In particular, he explained that Naver Webtoon's platform model, which has both an amateur content model that anyone can showcase their works and an original content model that is officially serialized on the webtoon platform, is showing results overseas.
The number of monthly active users (MAU) of the storytech platform built around the world by Naver Webtoon increased from 46 million at the time of the spin-off in 2017 to 180 million as of March 2022. The number of monthly users of each service, Naver Webtoon (South Korea), Line Webtoon (East Asia), Webtoon (North America, Central America, Europe), and Line Manga (Japan), reaches 82 million.
Naver Webtoon has challenged overseas markets where webtoons are unfamiliar early on and is currently providing services in a total of 10 languages around the world, including South Korea, Japan, North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. In particular, it overcame cultural barriers by applying amateur promotion systems and contests to each cultural area and continuously identifying local creators to create a local creator ecosystem. About 6 million creators are working on Naver Webtoon's global platform and Wattpad, and the cumulative number of works reaches 1 billion.
In addition, Naver Webtoon has grown based on the strength of ▲ a strong global platform where a number of creators and users communicate ▲ a strong business model ▲ Intellectual Property (IP) to secondary and tertiary creations. Therefore, webtoons and web novels have grown into core IPs in the global entertainment market.
Naver Webtoon explained that it has been improving its creative environment by taking the lead in developing artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as "AI Painter," which automatically colors, and "Toon Radar," which monitors distribution of illegal copies.
Kim Joon-koo, CEO of Naver Webtoon, said in its 5th anniversary CEO message to employees, "The platform created by Naver Webtoon has earned the status of a 'global top storytech platform' used by 180 million people around the world."
"The company has entered the global market and won over by major companies in the global entertainment industry," he added. "The growth over the next five years will be much greater than the growth over the past five years."
Naver Webtoon CEO Kim Joon-koo said in a CEO message to employees to commemorate the 5th anniversary, "The platform created by Naver Webtoon has become the 'Global No. 1 Story Tech Platform' used by 180 million people around the world, and the company has entered the global market and won over major companies in the global entertainment industry." And added, “The growth over the next five years will be much greater than the growth over the past five years."
Source: Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom
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