“So a lot of OTTs are showing great interest these days.”Īccording to Ro, about 30 of Naver’s webtoons were adapted into K-dramas between 20, and that number is only expected to grow. “A lot of people became paid users because they wanted to see Yumi’s Cells,” says Seungyun Ro, the IP business team leader at Naver WEBTOON, which published the original webtoon by Lee Dong-geon. TVING, a leading OTT service in Korea, saw its subscriber base surge when it released Yumi’s Cells, a coming-of-age romance about a 30-something office employee whose daily life is partly recounted from the perspective of her brain cells (think Inside Out, but with cuter cartoon characters). K-drama adaptations of webtoons have been a boon for local Korean streamers too.
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“Having webtoons that update weekly helps keep me entertained during my breaks at school or at home.” “I like webtoons because it’s easy to pick up my phone and open the app whenever,” says Raksa Nhoung, a college student in Oregon.
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Anyone with a mobile device can download one of the webtoon apps and gain instant access to a vast selection of content-much of which is free. Regardless of the genre, experts, industry insiders and readers alike seem to agree that one of the most appealing features of webtoons is their accessibility. Webtoons span a variety of genres, from horror to comedy to slice of life and everything in between, though a recent study by the Korea Creative Content Agency found that fantasy romance is the most popular.
“When I have long days, a good update or a new webtoon gives me the feels or a good laugh.” “Most of the webtoons are relatable to me on a personal level,” says Liliana Rosas, a California-based machine operator who fits that demographic. For WEBTOON, however, they have become a key factor behind its recent exponential growth. About 75% of its readers are Gen Z and younger Millennials, and 60% are women-audiences that have been historically underserved by traditional comic book publishers. WEBTOON (known as Naver WEBTOON in Korea), is by far the largest and best-known, with roughly 89 million monthly active users worldwide. Today there are dozens of webtoon publishers around the world, with most of the major ones based in Korea. Based on a popular webtoon of the same name by Youn In-wan and Yang Kyung-il, the highly anticipated K-drama starring Kim Nam-gil, Lee Da-hee and Cha Eun-woo launched globally this week. Amazon Prime Video is also getting into the game with Island, a fantasy thriller about a motley crew fighting to save the world from dark forces. Apple TV+’s first Korean-language show, Dr. Disney+, for instance, has released Kiss Sixth Sense and The Golden Spoon in select regions, with Moving set to premiere next year. To date, almost all webtoon-based K-dramas have been made available to international audiences primarily through Netflix or Viki-and other streaming platforms are looking to catch up. Since the mid-2010’s, webtoons have become some of the most sought-after source material for hit K-dramas, like Kingdom, Sweet Home, Hellbound, D.P., Itaewon Class, True Beauty, All of Us Are Dead, Business Proposal, Misaeng: Incomplete Life, Yumi’s Cells, and countless others. In most cases, readers view webtoons from top to bottom by scrolling vertically on their phones, though there are a few exceptions that use the more traditional horizontal format. Webtoons-a portmanteau of “web” and “cartoon”-are a type of digital comics optimized to be read on mobile devices. Media and entertainment executives on both sides of the Pacific are increasingly turning their attention to another Korean cultural phenomenon that is capturing audiences across the globe: webtoons. But its outsized impact on pop culture-which has been decades in the making-doesn’t stop there. South Korea has left an indelible mark on the global zeitgeist with critically acclaimed films such as Parasite and Decision to Leave, blockbuster K-dramas like Squid Game and Extraordinary Attorney Woo, K-pop sensations like BTS and Blackpink, and ongoing contributions to the world of e-sports, which it pioneered back in the 1990’s.
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