[People 人] From Entry-Level Employee to Manga Enthusiast CEO, Growing Korea's Marvel Beyond the Webtoon Powerhouse

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Following ‘Hellbound,’ which held the No. 1 spot on Netflix’s global content chart for 11 days, the new K-drama ‘Now, We Are Breaking Up’ has maintained its No. 1 position for the 10th consecutive day, continuing its box office success. Although it is a Netflix hit, it has also attracted attention for being based on a Naver Webtoon. The success of Now, We Are Breaking Up has led to evaluations that Naver Webtoon has firmly established itself as a global content ‘powerhouse.’

◆ ‘True’ Webtoon Expert Kim Jung-gu = At the center of Naver Webtoon’s global success is Kim Jung-gu, CEO of Naver Webtoon. Kim is regarded as a legendary figure within the company. He is the longest-serving manager of a single service at Naver and the only person who started as a junior employee and rose to the CEO position.

Kim, a graduate of Seoul National University’s Department of Applied Chemistry, joined Naver in 2004 at the age of 27, when Naver first launched its webtoon service. From the beginning of the webtoon service through its spin-off as an independent corporation in 2017 and up to the present, Kim has led Naver Webtoon for 18 years, successfully popularizing webtoons and establishing content revenue models. In 2014, he was selected by Forbes USA as one of the ‘12 Most Innovative Next-Generation Leaders in the World,’ and last year he received the Presidential Citation in the Overseas Advancement category at the ‘2021 Korea Content Awards.’

Kim is well known as a comic book enthusiast with a collection of over 8,800 volumes. He himself describes his passion as ‘deok-eop-ilchi’ (alignment of passion and profession), showing his extraordinary love for comics.

◆ Cultivating a Trillion-Won Business = Behind Naver Webtoon’s rise to its current status lies Kim’s unique management philosophy. He believes that creators must receive commensurate rewards for the related industry to grow and for high-quality content to be produced. The PPS (Per Page Share) program, which became the standard revenue model for webtoon creators, originated from Kim’s philosophy. In 2013, Naver created the PPS program to provide creators with more stable income by integrating all possible business models the platform could generate?such as advertising, paid content, and IP business?into webtoons, in addition to the existing manuscript fees.

Through the PPS program, the maximum individual creator’s earnings reached approximately 12.4 billion KRW as of 2020. The average earnings for all eligible creators were about 280 million KRW, and the average annualized earnings for creators who started serializing on the Naver platform within the last 12 months were 150 million KRW.

The total scale of Naver Webtoon’s PPS program amounts to approximately 1.7 trillion KRW. Recently, as Naver completed the IP value chain from web novels to webtoons to video adaptations, the expected revenue from the PPS program is anticipated to increase further.

◆ Dreaming of Korea’s Marvel = Kim’s goal for this year is to expand Naver Webtoon and web novels as a key pillar of the global entertainment industry ecosystem through collaboration with global content companies. Naver Webtoon has already completed the core elements of the web-original storytelling ecosystem: ▲platform ▲business model ▲IP value chain. Naver’s global story-tech platform, including Naver Webtoon, maintains its position as the world’s No. 1 platform with 167 million monthly users and 6 million active creators.

Kim expects a virtuous cycle effect through the global IP value chain. Naver’s story-tech platform secures users across various language groups, and when one piece of content based on a single IP forms a global fandom, this fandom naturally extends to other related content, creating a virtuous cycle. A prime example is how Netflix’s original dramas ‘Sweet Home’ and ‘Hellbound’ became global hits, leading to an increase worldwide in people seeking out the original webtoons.

Kim said, “If the Naver PPS program has helped webtoons grow into a bona fide industry as a new form of digital content, then through Naver’s IP value chain, the hottest content in the global entertainment sector will emerge. We will continue to pursue new attempts so that storytelling content can rise as a core element of the global entertainment industry.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.