South Korea’s webtoon industry has reached a milestone, surpassing 2 trillion won ($1.36 billion) in revenue for the first time in 2023, which marked six consecutive years of growth, a government report showed.
According to the report by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and its affiliate Korea Creative Content Agency, the total revenue for the webtoon industry in 2023 reached 2.189 trillion won, a 19.7% increase from the previous year’s 1.829 trillion won.
The industry’s growth trajectory has been consistent since 2018, with revenue jumping from 379.9 billion won in 2017 to over 1 trillion won in 2020.
Platform companies dominated the revenue stream, accounting for 64.4% of the total with 1.4094 trillion won, up 25% from 2022.
Japan remains the largest export market for Korean webtoons at 40.3%, followed by North America at 19.7%, and Chinese-speaking countries at 15.6%. Southeast Asia came fourth with 12.3%, followed by Europe with 8.2%.