Naver Webtoon Creator Revenue Diversification Model Grows to 2 Trillion Won Scale Over 10 Years

Kim Jun-gu, CEO of Naver Webtoon, is holding a media briefing on the 25th.

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Naver Webtoon’s webtoon business model package, the ‘PPS Program,’ designed to diversify creators’ revenue, has celebrated its 10th anniversary since its launch. Over the past decade, the annual scale of the PPS Program has increased by more than 2 trillion KRW.

On the 25th, Naver Webtoon held a media briefing to mark the 10th anniversary of the PPS Program and disclosed its achievements so far. At the event, CEO Kim Jun-gu revealed the efforts made to expand the webtoon industry base, the resulting outcomes, and future plans.

In March 2013, Naver Webtoon officially introduced the ‘PPS Program,’ a creator revenue diversification model centered on ▲content paid sales revenue ▲advertising revenue ▲IP business revenue, to regular serializing authors, and began full-scale application from April of the same year.

The PPS Program has grown dramatically over 10 years, becoming a hallmark of an ecosystem model where the platform and creators grow together. The annual scale of the PPS Program, which was about 23.2 billion KRW in 2013, grew to approximately 2.0255 trillion KRW in 2022, increasing by more than 2 trillion KRW over the decade. This represents an increase of more than 87 times compared to 10 years ago.

Naver Webtoon cited the expansion of the webtoon industry base as the background for this growth. To expand the webtoon industry, which existed only domestically in Korea, into a global market, Naver Webtoon has continuously invested in the global market over the past 10 years. They have expanded global services in languages such as Japanese and English and have worked to discover local creators and broaden the user base through local contests and participation in comic cons.

CEO Kim Jun-gu said, “Ten years ago, when manuscript fees were almost the only source of income for creators, we planned the PPS Program so that creators could focus on creation in a more stable environment and worked to grow webtoons into a global industry.” He added, “Thanks to the efforts of the authors who have created great works over the past decade and Naver Webtoon’s investments, the genre called ‘webtoon,’ which started in Korea, has grown into a global industry and can now provide significant revenue to creators, which makes me very happy.”

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As a result of launching the PPS Program and expanding the market base, the paid content model has also grown significantly in the webtoon market, which was previously centered on free viewing.

On global story-tech platforms operated by Naver Webtoon, including Naver Webtoon, Naver Series, LINE Webtoon, and LINE Manga, the number of webtoon and web novel works with annual transaction amounts exceeding 100 million KRW increased dramatically from 1 work in 2013 to 904 works in 2022. In 2022 alone, 136 works recorded transactions exceeding 1 billion KRW, and 5 works achieved transactions exceeding 10 billion KRW.

The global expansion of Korean webtoon works has also increased. As of 2022, 52% of the works officially serialized on Naver Webtoon’s Korean service generated revenue overseas.

With the expansion of contact points with overseas readers through the global platform built by Naver Webtoon, the cumulative views of popular works have also increased significantly. There are 40 works that have surpassed 1 billion cumulative views and 108 works that have exceeded 500 million views. Naver Webtoon’s global platform currently has 85.6 million monthly users.

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CEO Kim said, “Unlike 10 years ago, the webtoon content market has expanded beyond web pages to various markets such as games, videos, books, and merchandise,” and announced that the PPS brand will be rebranded from ‘Page Profit Share’ to ‘Partners Profit Share.’

He added, “Previously, the focus was on sharing revenue generated within the pages of webtoon and web novel platforms, but going forward, revenue generated from various businesses based on original IP will also grow. Naver Webtoon will play a strong supporting role to help creators’ IP meet greater business opportunities, and we decided to change the brand name to reflect this commitment.”

He also revealed the goals of the new PPS Program. CEO Kim stated, “Based on the new PPS Program, we will more than double the number of works with annual transactions exceeding 100 million KRW to 2,000 by 2028, and expand the number of works generating an average monthly IP business revenue of 5 million KRW to over 500 annually by 2025.”

The aim is not only to increase IPs generating hundreds of millions of KRW in revenue but also to strengthen the layer of creators earning several hundred million KRW annually, thereby making the webtoon industry ecosystem healthier.

CEO Kim said, “Naver Webtoon has bundled efforts to make the creative ecosystem healthier through policies, services, and technology into a program called ‘Webtoon With,’ and the PPS Program is also part of Webtoon With,” and unveiled Naver Webtoon’s creative ecosystem support program ‘Webtoon With.’

Recently, as part of Webtoon With, a dedicated system called ‘Creators’ for Challenge Comics and Best Challenge creators was launched. On the 2nd of last month, functions such as ‘Work Statistics’ and ‘Episode Reservation’ were introduced to help amateur creators gauge reader reactions and improve creative convenience. On the 19th, a ‘Comment Management’ feature was added to protect creators from malicious comments. Monetization features for amateur creators are also being prepared for introduction within this year.

CEO Kim stated, “Although Korea’s webtoon ecosystem has expanded globally and the reader base has grown, we are competing fiercely with large entertainment companies in overseas markets. As the world’s number one story-tech company, we will take responsibility and continue to expand support for creators.”

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