Webtoon

Pay Model

Webtoons have also produced the webtoon pay model where some chapters of a title are offered for free and the rest can be read for free after a period of time or can be purchased individually.

Generation Zero

Layout of an early webtoon. Buttons allow turning the page.

The earliest webtoons were scanned original comics uploaded onto the Internet, usually formatted on a one-page layout.

First generation

With the development of technology, authors were able to utilise flash animation effects.

Second generation

An example of a second generation webtoon.

Enhanced preloading enabled later authors to adopt a vertical layout with scrolling. In contrast to comics with a dense panel composition, scrolling brings new panels into view. This makes webtoons suitable for gradual and continuous representation, allowing webtoon reading to become more fluid.^[7]

Third generation

With the advent of the smartphone and tablet, webtoons have also migrated to new platforms such as apps.

Prior to 2014, most webtoons were only available in English through unofficial fan translations. In July 2014, Naver subsidiary Line began publication of translations of popular webtoons to English via the Line Webtoon service.^[8][9]

China and Taiwan

In mainland China and Taiwan, webtoons along with web manhua have seen an increase in production and popularity since they are rarely published and just like in South Korea, have resulted in a resurgence and interest in the manhua industry as more content is consumed digitally. Almost all of the big webtoon portals in China are offered by the big internet companies in the country while in Taiwan the bigger webtoon publishers outside of the country like Comico, Toomics, and Line Webtoon are more popular since their services are available there.^[14]

South East Asia

Indonesia and Thailand have become big markets for the webtoon industry with both Naver (under Line Webtoon) and Comico offering both original webtoons and fully translated titles in the two countries. Some webtoons made in Indoneisa and Thailand have even been translated and published outside of the countries like Eggnoid. Vietnam launched its first webtoon portal, Vinatoon, offering translated titles from Daum Webtoon and Mr. Blue with the intention of opening up another market.^[15]

Western countries

Many of the webtoon publishers have had success in penetrating markets outside of Asia with the biggest success being the United States and other English speaking countries.^[16][17] Lezhin, Toomics, and Naver are the only big publishers who translate their own titles rather than licensing them out and Naver (under the Line brand) even offers the ability for fan translations to be offered in different languages. Spottoon and TappyToon offer translated licensed works from various publishers including KToon, Bomtoon, Foxtoon, and many more. Besides just the consumption of translated works, there has also been a rise in the creation of original non-Asian webtoons thanks in part to sites like Tapas and Line Webtoon offering the ability for anyone to submit their own work.^[18] In the beginning, many of the webtoons created outside of Asia tended to just be webcomics released in the webtoon format but over time, more artists have released more titles that are full-fledged comics rather than reformatted webcomics.

Japan

Webtoons in Japan have not caught on as well as in other countries mainly due to the traditional manga industry still being the main way in which manga get released and published. Even web manga, which have seen a recent rise in populartiy, get released in black-and-white and not color like in Korea or China despite being released digitally.^[19] Despite this, there have been some strides to penetrate the Japanese market and slowly more mangaka are trying out the webtoon format to release their titles.^[20] Lezhin, Comico, Naver, and Kakao offer webtoon portals with translated works for Japanese readers. Comico, one of the biggest webtoon publishers in the world, was actually created by the Japanese subsidiary of NHN Entertainment, NHN Japan. To date, there are only two webtoon portals that offer original Japanese webtoons, Comico and Naver (under the name XOY). Kakao has also had success in the Japanese market by offering both licensed manga and translated Korean webtoons with their service, Piccoma. This has been credited to the webtoon pay model that the service implements where some chapters are offered for free for a short period of time.^[21] Kakao Japan has announced that it will start offering original Japanese, Korean, and Chinese webtoons for Piccoma in the summer of 2018.^[22]