The market size for Webtoons is determined by several factors that influence its growth and popularity. Digitalization and accessibility are significant market pushers in the field of webtoons. The primary means of content consumption has transitioned to digital platforms due to the rapid speed at which technology has changed. Webtoons have become popular because they can be easily accessed at any time or place, through either smartphones or computers, as digital comics are meant exclusively for online reading. On these platforms, one may read countless numbers of comic books digitally. This digitalization has opened up new opportunities for creators, publishers, and readers alike in the comic industry.
Changing consumer tastes and preferences play an instrumental role in shaping the growth of webtoons. Today's consumers crave bite-sized content that is highly interactive. To this end, webtoons have been created in visual formats that are easy to read and can be scrolled down on mobile devices. Also, as we have seen above, they vary with genre from romance, fantasy, and action to slice-of-life, pulling readers from diverse backgrounds. With more customers going for digital content where they want to get fully immersed into stories rather than just read them over screen, Webtoon series are becoming a big hit.
Global reach has also benefited the webtoon market. Unlike traditional comics, which are mostly confined to a region or language, webtoons can be conveniently translated across borders. This global appeal has helped webtoons attract a large audience, including people from different cultural backgrounds and geographical locations. Furthermore, multilingual options provided by translators collaborating with webtoon platforms allow makers to access a wider international market/audience/market around the world. Another major factor affecting the market is being supportive of the creator's community. Webtoon Platforms are spaces where upcoming artists find recognition while show-casting their talent. These creators' hubs provide essential tools, resources, and ways of making money from their works, among others, to encourage the growth of their fan base and help creators follow their dreams. The webtoon community is known for its active engagement, with readers providing feedback, participating in discussions, and supporting their favorite creators.
Report Attribute/Metric | Details |
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Growth Rate | 37.30% (2023-2032) |
Webtoons Market Size was valued at USD 3.9 Billion in 2022. The Webtoons market industry is projected to grow from USD 5.4 Billion in 2023 to USD 67.6 Billion by 2032, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.30% during the forecast period (2023 - 2032). Rising popularity of webtoons and the growth of digital comics in the entertainment industry are the key market drivers enhancing the market growth.
Figure 1: Webtoons Market, 2018 - 2032 (USD Billion)
Source: Secondary Research, Primary Research, MRFR Database and Analyst Review
Digital infrastructure in the form of broadband Internet delivery, speed, and smartphone transmission allowed for the creation of webtoons. As the need for mobile entertainment increases, webtoons are drawing more users' attention, creating a large opportunity for Korean platform providers. The rapidly expanding internet user base in South Korea is largely to blame for the market's spectacular expansion. The population of South Korea was 51.29 million in January 2021, according to industry statistics. Networks, platforms, and digital technologies are altering the traditional media and entertainment businesses. This is the primary factor influencing the market in the future.
Digital infrastructure in the form of broadband Internet delivery, speed, and smartphone transmission allowed for the creation of webtoons. As the need for mobile entertainment increases, webtoons are drawing more users' attention, creating a large opportunity for Korean platform providers. The rapidly expanding internet user base in South Korea is largely to blame for the market's spectacular expansion. The population of South Korea was 51.29 million in January 2021, according to industry statistics. The traditional media and entertainment industries are changing as a result of networks, platforms, and digital technology. This is the primary driver of the market during the anticipated time.
Compared to other content platforms, webtoons feature a more sophisticated income business strategy. With subscription-based services, webcomics offer a big potential to increase average revenue per paying customer. Webtoons in Korea have already surpassed music streaming services and are now on par with video streaming services in terms of user engagement indicators like time spent and frequency. The fact that the webtoon content ecosystem is built around platforms is also encouraging. Due of the industry's recent 20-year rapid evolution. Digital comics have been produced in a variety of formats due to the rise in popularity and advancements in digitization. Since many years ago, their format has changed as content producers have developed new strategies for attracting audiences. Webtoons used to have simple. After that, as webtoons began to be distributed via internet portals, they began to become more narrative-driven and dramatized, with a faster pace. Internet portals have seen an increase in the number of authors, both new and established, who are using webtoons to make money since the user-created content model was developed.
Due to the vast majority of people having access to the Internet, more and more people are becoming interested in webtoons. An increase in online activities made available on many entertainment platforms, including digital comics, series, action comics, and others, has been attributed to the rising rise of mobile cellular subscription. By eliminating the requirement for drawing equipment (such as drawing pens and screen tone), webcomics and digital technology dramatically reduced the cost of creating digital images while improving the ease with which a wider audience may be reached. Webtoons are thought to have enormous growth potential because they greatly minimize the requirement for expensive drawing supplies like screen toner and drawing pencils. Webtoons are made up of vertically stacked images that users can scroll through on a mobile device or tablet to view one huge image. With this design, webtoons are less constrained in their ability to construct stories through the arrangement of their images. In order to draw substantial users, leading organizations active in the webtoons market are also concentrating on the release of new series and fresh content. Thus, driving the Webtoons market revenue.
The Webtoons Market segmentation, based on type, includes comedy, action, sci-fic, horror, romance, and others. Romance segment dominated the global market in 2022. Romance is one of the most widely read genres of comics on the webtoon platform, which is growing in popularity. Romance appears to be the most popular genre on the well-known webcomic app "Webtoon"TM because readers can connect with the characters and feel the real emotions of the stories.
The Webtoons Market segmentation, based on revenue model, includes subscription based and adds based. Subscription based segment dominated the Webtoons Market in 2022. The food and IT sectors are two that employ subscription-based business strategies. A subscription business model allows you to obtain ongoing revenue from a group of loyal customers when a customer pays a price on a regular basis to access your good or service.
The Webtoons Market segmentation, based on application, includes mobile, laptop, tablets, and television. Mobile segment dominated the global market in 2022. Every regular person now relies on their mobile phone more and more in daily life. The convenience of app store platforms has increased user engagement and screen time. People are experimenting with mobile phone applications since they are becoming more and more popular.
Figure 2: Webtoons Market, by Application, 2022 & 2032 (USD Billion)
Source: Secondary Research, Primary Research, MRFR Database and Analyst Review
By region, the study provides the market insights into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. The North America Webtoons Market dominated this market in 2022 (45.80%). Over the coming years, the growth of various webtoon designer groups and consultants is projected to further boost industry growth. Further, the U.S. Webtoons market held the largest market share, and the Canada Webtoons market was the fastest growing market in the North America region.
Further, the major countries studied in the market report are The US, Canada, German, France, the UK, Italy, Spain, China, Japan, India, Australia, South Korea, and Brazil.
Figure 3: WEBTOONS MARKET SHARE BY REGION 2022 (USD Billion)
Source: Secondary Research, Primary Research, MRFR Database and Analyst Review
Europe Webtoons market is expected to register significant growth from 2023 to 2032. In addition to English, Webtoon will offer services in French, Spanish, and, starting in 2022, German. The most widely used digital comics platform in Europe is Webtoon, which also offers editions in French, Spanish, and German. It is anticipated that Webtoons will establish a new European corporation, solidifying its position as the leading player in the European digital comics market and the biggest digital comics platform worldwide. France will serve as the location of the new webtoon European Corporation's main office. Further, the German Webtoons market held the largest market share, and the U.K Webtoons market was the fastest growing market in the European region
The Asia Pacific Webtoons market accounted for the healthy market share in 2022. With the top webtoons apps attracting more than 70 million monthly users and producing more than 100 billion views annually, the webtoons platform has surged in popularity throughout Asia. The value of NAVER Webtoon is expected to come back into prominence in the future due to the rapidly expanding demand for webcomics worldwide. The largest webtoon platform in terms of revenue and users across the Korean Peninsula, Japan, Taiwan, the US, and other significant nations in the world is NAVER Webtoon. Moreover, China’s Webtoons market held the largest market share, and the Indian Webtoons market was the fastest growing market in the Asia-Pacific region.
Leading market players are investing heavily in research and development in order to expand their product lines, which will help the Webtoons market, grow even more. Market participants are also undertaking a variety of strategic activities to expand their global footprint, with important market developments including new product launches, contractual agreements, mergers and acquisitions, higher investments, and collaboration with other organizations. To expand and survive in a more competitive and rising market climate, Webtoons Industry must offer cost-effective items.
Manufacturing locally to minimize operational costs is one of the key business tactics used by manufacturers in the global Webtoons Industry to benefit clients and increase the market sector. In recent years, the Webtoons Industry has offered some of the most significant advantages to medicine. Major players in the Webtoons market, including MARVEL UNLIMITED, BOMTOON, TAPPYTOON, DAUM WEBTOON AND COMPANY, NHN COMICO CORP, Kakao Corp., IZNEO WEBTOON, naver webtoon corp, SIDEWALK GROUP, and Lezhin Entertainment, are attempting to increase market demand by investing in research and development operations.
Web portal and website providers include Naver Corp (Naver). Through well-known portals and platforms as NAVER, Line, NAVER Clova, VIBE, Papago, Whale, NAVER Maps, V LIVE, Webtoon, Papago, SERIES, SNOW, and BAND, the corporation provides a variety of application services. The audio content platform AudioClip is also available. Naver, Junior Naver, Happybean, and Livedoor are some of Naver's most popular portals. Through Naver, it offers search engine services. The firm is present in Japan, the US, France, Germany, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Thailand through a network of subsidiaries. In Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi Do, South Korea, Naver has its headquarters. A new DC Comics webtoon series titled Vixen was released by Naver Webtoon in April 2022. In the upcoming months, Naver Webtoon plans to debut "The Red Hood: Outlaws" and "Zatanna & The Ripper," two other webtoons from DC Comics.
A webtoon platform run by Toonsutra is designed to offer a webcomic experience. The company's platform aims to provide a wide variety of comic content on superheroes, fantasy, romance, science fiction, Bollywood, mythology, action, and more for audiences worldwide, giving users access to fresh tales and foreign comics every day from authors and storytellers who speak Indian languages. The Graphics India Group launched the popular smartphone comics app Toonsutra in April 2021. Webtoons based on well-known Indian TV series like "Baahubali" and "The Legend of Hanuman" are also available on the platform.
August 2021: Today, WEBTOON Entertainment Inc., the top webcomic platform in the world, launched a collaborative effort with DC. As part of the arrangement, DC and WEBTOON will work together on numerous upcoming webcomic series set in the DC Universe. All fans will enjoy these stand-alone series because they don't require any prior reading or understanding. In the upcoming weeks, more material will be made available, including details about translations into local languages.
March 2022: In order to strengthen its position as the top digital comics platform in Europe and the rest of the globe, WEBTOON will launch a new European corporation. The new WEBTOON company in Europe will have its headquarters in France.
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