'Naver Webtoon storytech platform cannot be replaced'

Kim Jun-koo, CEO and founder of Naver Webtoon / Courtesy of Naver

By Kim Hyun-bin

Naver's storytech platform, which consists of webtoons and webnovels, has garnered 6 million creators with over 167 million users visiting the site each month, making it the most dominant platform of its type in the world.

Naver Webtoon locally established its “Webtoon Canvas” service and globally launched “Canvas” as an amateur participation system established to enhance amateur content creators. Due to the platform, Naver holds the largest number of active webtoon creators in the world.

“Webtoons are different from other published cartoons in their content and genre, and it is necessary to continuously find new creators to maintain a foothold in the market. Naver Webtoon has been investing in the global amateur platform from the know-how obtained from the local market.” Said Chung Yoon-hyuk, a media professor at Korea University. “There are diverse webtoon businesses around the globe but there are no businesses that can replace the Webtoon Canvas platform.”

There are firms that increase marketing spending to momentarily increase transactions, but it will be difficult to obtain large-scale users and creators, Naver said.

“Naver Webtoon has secured an abundant creator pool which leads to a large amount of users,” said Kim Jung-hwan, a professor of mass communication at Pukyong National University. “Naver has secured 167 million users and shows strengths not only with its paid-for content but with advertising and IP partnerships.”

The company's page profit share profitability model that includes ad sales and paid-for content transactions has exceeded the 1 trillion won mark over the past 12 months. Naver also plans to unveil original content from partnerships with top entertainment companies such as DC Comics and HYBE in the near future, strengthening the global platform.

This could lead to more talented creators appearing on the Naver storytech platform to produce webtoons, webnovels and other original content, which is expected to further enhance Naver Webtoon's global competitiveness, the company said.

Apart from its dominance in the webtoon market, Naver also plans to enter the entertainment business.

“We are not making Naver Webtoon as part of the company's services, we like to think of it as rather building a path for the global webtoon industry,” Kim Jun-koo, CEO and founder of Naver Webtoon, said during a press conference. “We are not here to compete with latecomers in the industry; we're contemplating how we can make this industry grow.”