Interface Interrogation: Webtoon.com
By Kendall Knox
Webtoons, or hangul: 웹툰 in Korean, are a digital art form first made popular in Korea, and since has become a popular form of art/content sharing worldwide. The first site, webtoon.com, was created in 2004 in Korea and launched stateside in 2014. The site is free to publish on and access content and is home to thousands of original creators in multiple genres including: romance, comedy, action, fantasy, horror, superhero, thriller/horror, slice of life, mystery, historical, and a few other genres. I found the diversity on the site a major strength. Their mission for the site was to create a space where creators and readers alike can share new content and see the new cutting edge of artists. They have a global community of roughly 72 + million monthly active users, I found that the platform has really adhered to their mission and have accomplished it.
The interface of Webtoons is very clean and concise in comparison to some other sites that offer similar content. The main page is easy to navigate, there are four options: originals, genre, popular and canvas. The “originals” tab offers a release schedule broken up into different days of the week, for multiple genres and creators that are organized by either popularity, likes or date of original release. Fridays being the most popular day with the most new releases, I found that when sorted by popularity often the comic with the most likes were not always the most “popular,” meaning the page received more hits/traffic which in my experience meant it must be really good.
The tab also features a completed series section that is sorted similarly, genre and you can sort them by like, popularity or by date.
The “genre” page is organized by date stories that are still being published towards the top and finished stories towards the bottom; and although it shows how many hearts (likes) a story has received this does not affect the order, though you can change it to sort by likes or popularity. I personally found that to be pretty unique and refreshing, just about every social media site or publishing site is organized in a way that caters to likes/popularity, and I really like that Webtoon allows for more visibility for new/less popular creators. If you scroll to the end of the content offered for a genre, it will automatically take you to the next genre on the list which I found to be unique and a good idea to keep people on site.
The genre I spent most of my time looking at was a comedy, but what I noticed was unique about a site like this is that when you reach the end of a genre, it will automatically shift to the next on the list.
I found that I spent the most time looking at the comedy and slice of life comics. They were light hearted and often easy going, some being one panel. My plan was to publish in these two categories, so I wanted to get a good feel for the content offered. Upon selecting a series the page has the comics in order from newest to oldest, shows the number of subscribers and the rating, a note from the author and the day new content is published.
The “popular” page is aesthetically very cohesive and is broken up into 2 sections: most popular genre, age groups and each section has a list of the top 10 comics depending on how you want it sorted (popular, likes, date). The popular section is broken up into 6 categories: All which is a mix of all genres, Action/Fantasy, Romance/Drama, Comedy, Slice of life, and Other. The second section I found pretty interesting, it was broken up by gender (male/female), and then by age groups “10s, 20s, 30s.” I noticed that when clicking the 20s and 30s sections there was no “18+ verification” that popped up, also I noticed that comics that were top 3 in the 30s were also in the 20s, 10s age groups regardless of gender, which made me think that maybe the content is not that explicit. I also noticed that there is a special news letter under the “informative” genre that is in the top spots (1st — 3rd) called “Webtoon Now” which highlight various events, and festive new additions and general updates in the site.
Unique to this platform is the “Canvas” tab, this tab features a top 15 recommend series section, 6 weekly “what’s hot” list, and 6 popular by genre section; pretty benign but the canvas picks are apart of a VERY unique monetization program that came about due to the pandemic, where the site is offering creators 100% of the advertising revenue generated by their content. There are now over 70,000 creators and 90,000 series on Canvas. The system rewards the most popular (top performing) creators in an effort to support creators during the pandemic initially starting in December 2020 to January 2021 and was extended to end in June 2021 (July payout); they have extended the Creator Rewards Program until the end of 2021. They have a special section on the page that has the top creators, their Patreon/Paypal so people can donate, and their current standing called “total pay” in the form of points, with rewards ranging from $100 to $1000s in relation to page views and advertising revenue generated. To qualify for the program you must Hit 1,000 subscribers and 40,000 US monthly page views for your series, I honestly felt like this was an amazing idea, not only to keep creating, there is an initiative for the site/company in that the site continues to function as normal but I feel this is very altruistic of them. A relationship between site and creator that I have not seen anywhere else on the internet, most major sites, for instance Instagram that has users creating content, giving them data and generation revenue from advertising would not give 100% or even increase the percentage of revenue generated on users content; granted it is substantially more capital, Webtoon rose to the occasion which I respect.
Data collecting and advertising/marketing: the average user is Millennial or Gen Z, ages of users 0–24 make up 60% of their user base, 25–35 is 35%, the remaining 35+. On average, readers visit Webtoon 2.7 times a week and spend 27 minutes each time, and the site features Ads with popular characters from series on the sites to encourage user engagement. They are partnered with many major brands ranging from Burger King, McDonalds, Disney, Nike, LG and Samsung. Which allows creator branded content in series, similar to product placement in film/tv, but I do not think that they pay for rights to use the content. I also think it’s a great experience/resume-booster for creators on the site that produce the Ads.
To begin publishing content on Webtoon you must click on the publish tab, if you already have an account it will bring you to a page where you can upload content. First select a genre and subgenre for your content, upload a thumbnail photo and write a summary of your upload with a max word limit of 500. If you do not have an account, you create an account via email or social media platform (Facebook, Twitter), pass the age verification of at least 13 years. Next to the publish tab there is the creator 101 tab that offers 3 sections: “getting started” outlines the process, “creator resources” offers informational videos on using the site, and “make money’’ which explains the unique ways creators can monetize their content.
The 7 easy steps to publishing your content:
STEP 1
- Sign up for WEBTOON and visit Publish page.
STEP 2
- Pick your main genre and one sub-genre.
STEP 3
- Name your series. The most successful titles are unique but easy to find.
STEP 4
- Upload your series thumbnail. Showcase the main character and your style.
STEP 5
- Write your series summary. The summary should be 500 characters or less, set the tone, and establish a hook.
STEP 6
- Upload your first episode no more than 50mb at a time. For the episode thumbnail, use an image from the episode. Dimensions must be 160px by 151px.
STEP 7
- Continue publishing Include your publishing schedule in your summary; it will help readers know when to come back.
I had no issues with this process, and I created my content on the Microsoft paint app and uploaded it to the site. I ended up creating a silly little 3-panel comic strip under the main genre of comedy and subgenre of slice of life. All and all I think Webtoon is an excellent site for creatives and artists that is easy to navigate, offers a large and engaged audience/user base and allows for creators to be paid for their work.
My Webtoon: I AM — 1 | Ightttt (webtoons.com)
