Webtoons Market Size and Share
Market Overview
| Study Period | 2019 - 2030 |
|---|---|
| Market Size (2025) | USD 10.85 Billion |
| Market Size (2030) | USD 48.31 Billion |
| Growth Rate (2025 - 2030) | 34.80% CAGR |
| Fastest Growing Market | Middle East |
| Largest Market | Asia Pacific |
| Market Concentration | Medium |
Major Players
*Disclaimer: Major Players sorted in no particular order Image © Mordor Intelligence. Reuse requires attribution under CC BY 4.0. |
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Webtoons Market Analysis by Mordor Intelligence
The Webtoon market size is estimated at USD 10.85 billion in 2025, and discrete platform forecasts point to a rise toward USD 48.31 billion by 2030, translating into a 34.4% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Daily reading minutes that once belonged to short-form video or casual games now migrate to vertical-scroll comics, and this shift drives sustained content budgeting: a mid-tier studio that spent USD 60,000 on a single pilot in 2024 is reserving USD 200,000 for its next flagship launch in 2025, confident that advertising, micro-payments, and adaptation fees will recoup the outlay [1]Naver Webtoon Editorial, “2025 Content Budget Guidance,” naverwebtoon.com. Internal submission logs also show that every addition of one million monthly readers brings roughly 1,050 fresh episodes into catalogues, proving that audience growth flows directly into content supply. Asia-Pacific still delivers most traffic, yet North America and Western Europe now produce higher revenue per reader as tipping widens average revenue per user (ARPU). Cultural proximity further reshapes the creative map: locally produced Arabic originals in Saudi Arabia outperform translated hits on ten-week retention, even though pre-publication reviews add two weeks to the launch timeline.
Key Report Takeaways
- By region, Asia-Pacific held 61% of Webtoon market share in 2024, while North America posted the fastest ARPU expansion at +64% year-over-year.
- By genre, comedy commanded a 25% share of the Webtoon market size in 2024, whereas sci-fi is projected to expand at a 38% CAGR between 2025-2030.
- By revenue model, advertisement-supported chapters generated 62% of 2024 revenues, while subscriptions are advancing at a 37% CAGR through 2030.
- By device, mobile phones owned 75% of reading time in 2024; connected TVs recorded the highest projected CAGR at 41% through 2030.
- By company, Naver Webtoon, Kakao Entertainment, Line Webtoon, and Tapas Media collectively controlled 68% of global revenue in 2024.
Global Webtoons Market Trends and Insights
Drivers Impact Analysis
| Driver | (~) % Impact on CAGR Forecast | Geographic Relevance | Impact Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Explosive Smartphone and 5G Penetration | +7.20% | East Asia | Short term (≤2 yrs) |
| K-Content IP Syndication | +6.80% | Global | Medium term (3-4 yrs) |
| AI-Assisted Translation | +4.50% | Global | Short term (≤2 yrs) |
| Creator Micro-Payments | +3.90% | North America | Medium term (3-4 yrs) |
| Vertical-Scroll Synergy with Short-Form Video | +3.20% | Global | Short term (≤2 yrs) |
| Gaming Cross-IP Events | +2.10% | Global | Medium term (3-4 yrs) |
| Source: Mordor Intelligence | |||
Explosive Smartphone And 5G Penetration Among Gen-Z in East Asia
Near-ubiquitous 5G now blankets 97% of South Korea’s population, eliminating load times and extending average session length from 18.4 minutes in 2024 to 22.5 minutes in early 2025 [2]Korea Communications Commission, “National 5G Coverage Report 2025,” koreancc.go.kr. The additional four-minute window supports another ad interstitial without harming satisfaction, so platform CPMs edge higher. Creators have responded by inserting mini cliff-hangers every 20 panels, a cadence that only functions when latency is negligible. This network-driven pacing elevates engagement metrics and reinforces the premium that advertisers pay for mid-scroll placements. Because 5G roll-outs in Thailand and Vietnam trail by only 12 months, similar behavior is forecast to surface across Southeast Asia during the short-term horizon
K-Content IP Syndication Deals with Global Streaming Platforms
An April 2025 agreement worth USD 420 million between Naver Webtoon and Netflix shows how streaming giants treat top Webtoon titles as pre-validated intellectual property [3]Netflix Media Center, “Strategic IP Partnerships 2025,” netflix.com. Trailer drops routinely triple Webtoon readership within eight weeks, meaning marketing dollars spent by Netflix double as free promotion for the original comic. As adaptation pipelines swell, platforms redeploy staff from ad-tech tweaks to talent scouting, able to pitch cross-media concepts. Hollywood agencies, meanwhile, have started requesting weekly panel analytics before signing option contracts, underscoring that data-driven storytelling now travels both ways between comics and screen.
AI-Assisted Multilingual Translation Cutting Localization Costs
Kakao Entertainment’s neural translation suite compresses a month-long workflow into three hours across eleven languages and trims page-level costs by 68%. Day-and-date global releases wipe out the window on which piracy apps depend; one action title recorded a 58% decline in illegal links during its first two launch days compared with its 2024 season. Editorial teams freed from literal translation spend more time on cultural nuance—polishing idioms and adjusting sound-effect typography—lifting average review scores by half a star. Faster localization also allows advertisers to coordinate multinational campaigns, a feature that did not exist under staggered release calendars.
Creator-Led Micro-Payments an Tipping Boosting ARPU in North America
Tapas Media introduced blockchain-backed tipping in February 2025 and saw ARPU climb 43% within one quarter. Micro-tips average USD 1.30 yet recur frequently: 68% of active readers tipped at least once per month versus the 11% who previously bought bulk coin packs. Bite-sized spending lowers commitment barriers, converting casual readers into paying supporters without a paywall. The resulting revenue smooths seasonal swings because readers choose their own frequency. U.S. platforms now analyze sentiment signals in comment threads to trigger reminder nudges at emotional peaks, a practice that inflation-proofs revenue because tips track engagement rather than macro cycles.
Restraints Impact Analysis
| Restraint | (~) % Impact on CAGR Forecast | Geographic Relevance | Impact Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Piracy via Mirror Apps | -5.40% | Emerging Markets | Long term |
| Cultural Censorship in Middle-East | -3.80% | Middle-East | Medium term (3-4 yrs) |
| Creator Burn-out | -3.20% | Global | Long term (≥5 yrs) |
| Low Digital Payment Penetration in Africa | -2.10% | Sub-Saharan Africa | Long term (≥5 yrs) |
| Source: Mordor Intelligence | |||
Rising Webtoon Piracy via Unregulated Mirror Apps
Industry audits counted 217 piracy apps serving 42 million monthly users in Q1 2025, Korea. These clones lure readers with offline caching and ad-free interfaces—features that legitimate services restrict to paid creators. An official experiment offering a 24-hour offline pass cut piracy referrals 19% week-over-week, illustrating that convenience, not price, drives migration to grey channels. Legal takedowns remain slow because hosting shifts to overseas servers within hours. Platforms, therefore, focus on product parity: fast downloads, customizable data caps, and bundled reading passes, betting that feature completeness will recapture churned users over the long term.
Stringent Cultural Censorship in Middle-East Markets
Saudi Arabia enforced pre-publication reviews for digital comics in March 2025, extending approval timelines by roughly two weeks. Global platforms answered by opening local creator hubs; Naver Webtoon’s Riyadh office hired 20 Arabic artists in May 2025. Native content bypasses many edits and already posts completion rates 14% above imported series after four chapters. However, the extended queue delays revenue recognition, penalizing cash flow for smaller studios. Premium pricing power remains limited until payment rails mature, so the censorship burden subtracts 3.8 percentage points from the global CAGR forecast during the medium term.
Segment Analysis
By Genre: Comedy Leads but Sci-Fi Accelerates
Comedy captured 25% of Webtoon market share in 2024 thanks to near-universal humor that travels with minimal localization, and its completion rates sit 18% above platform averages. Advertisers slot miniature games inside chapter midpoints because readers seldom skip comedic episodes. The genre’s popularity, however, does not guarantee merchandising success; a 2025 slice-of-life hit collected 1.2 million subscribers in eight weeks yet converted poorly into physical goods.
Sci-fi is emerging as the long-run growth engine, advancing at a 38% CAGR, because vertical scroll enables panoramic reveals that once required costly splash pages. Reader polls in July 2024 showed 41% of sci-fi fans willing to spend more than USD 3 per month on premium passes, eclipsing comedy fans by nine points. Romance retains the highest gross per user, while horror leverages timed panel exposure for jump scares and charges 31% above the average subscription. Educational content remains under a 3% share but posted 84% year-on-year growth in Q1 2025, underlining how catalog diversification hedges against shifting tastes in the Webtoon market.
Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase
By Revenue Model: Subscriptions Rise Against Ad Dominance
Advertisement-funded episodes generated 62% of the Webtoon market size revenues in 2024 as static banners blend smoothly after every 50 panels. A South Korean operator that replaced static units with six-second rewarded videos in August 2024 lifted click-through to 9.4%, reinforcing ad viability. Even so, seasonal dips—especially over the 2025 New Year holiday—exposed volatility. Subscriptions already account for 38% of income and are growing at 37% CAGR, with flexible passes such as France’s weekend-only tier signing 120,000 users in a single month.
Hybrid monetization layers add resilience: Japanese “fast lane” tickets let fans unlock next week’s episode for USD 0.30, and 42% of paying users try the feature. IP licensing is another lever; a noir detective Webtoon struck a tabletop game deal in June 2025, expanding royalty streams. Micro-payments, especially tipping, further broaden participation; an Indonesian platform’s rupiah billing launched in July 2024 and lowered the entry threshold to USD 0.05, widening the paying cohort.
By Device / Application: Connected TVs Pose Next-Screen Opportunity
Mobile phones accounted for 75% of reading time in 2024, and episode length roughly mirrors a 23-minute Seoul subway ride logged in November 2024. Tablets hold an 8% share yet punch above their weight; an iPad-exclusive historical epic released in April 2025 produced 27% longer sessions than its smartphone counterpart. Laptops at 15% share remain the primary creation environment, as evidenced by a 37% rise in Webtoon template downloads at a German art-software vendor in 2025.
Connected TVs, although only 2% of traffic in 2024, are advancing at a 41% CAGR. A December 2024 firmware patch on a U.K. smart-TV-based reader introduced voice navigation and doubled weekend viewing minutes. Crucially, households that read via TV still consume episodes on phones during commutes, proving that large-screen reading complements rather than cannibalizes mobile engagement. This dual-screen synergy bodes well for family consumption habits, opening a fresh front for the Webtoon market.
Note: Segment shares of all individual segments available upon report purchase
Geography Analysis
Asia-Pacific remains the engine of the Webtoon market. South Korea alone counted 12,000 professional artists in 2024 and pioneered live drawing streams that fold fan votes directly into panel layouts, a concept Indonesian platforms copied within six months. Japan innovated omnibus releases in 2025 that bundle four short chapters into one extended scroll, catering to binge demand without straining weekly production. China’s separate but massive ecosystem cross-pollinates art styles; a legally syndicated Chinese martial-arts comic broke even in Vietnam in ten days, showing how controlled exports amplify earnings.
North America controls 18% of the Webtoon market size yet enjoys higher ARPU after tipping features pushed U.S. user spend to USD 6.90, surpassing South Korea’s USD 4.20. A spring-2025 miniseries adapted from a U.S. romance Webtoon triggered four million fresh app installs and saw 32% of viewers pay to advance beyond free chapters. Canada’s bilingual user base propels French translations into the top-five ranking inside the same app, illustrating how multilingual markets magnify catalogue reach without new drawing costs. Cross-border launches with Mexico highlight contiguous market potential: a September 2024 fantasy debut in Los Angeles and Mexico City doubled first-week revenue forecasts.
The Middle East and Africa cluster holds 5% of the Webtoon market yet records the fastest growth. The UAE’s January 2025 decision to allow 100% foreign ownership in digital media lured a Korean publisher to establish its Arabic localization unit in Dubai. In Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria and Kenya drive volume, but low card penetration pushes platforms toward carrier billing. A February 2025 Kenyan deal linking Webtoon payments to mobile airtime boosted daily unlocks 34% in its first month, demonstrating that local payment rails turn latent demand into cash flow. Such tailored solutions help the Webtoon market narrow the monetization gap in high-piracy regions.
Competitive Landscape
Four incumbents—Naver Webtoon, Kakao Entertainment, Line Webtoon, and Tapas Media—collectively claim 68% of global revenue, cementing network effects that lock in star creators through early-release exclusivity tiers. Leaked 2024 contracts show top authors receiving minimum guarantees plus 50% of adaptation royalties, blending publisher and studio economics. Smaller entrants carve defensible turf by specializing in language niches or focused genres; a Thai horror app launched in 2025 with forty titles and reached break-even in six months by pairing premium pricing with limited-edition merchandise.
Technology upgrades drive competitive speed. A mid-tier Korean firm introduced AI panel re-composition in September 2024 that trims color flattening time by 30%, shortening weekly schedules for art styles that previously needed two weeks. These workflow tools cascade to freelancers, raising overall artistic polish and compressing production cycles. Investors now judge platforms on creator efficiency metrics, such as episodes produced per studio seat per quarter, a KPI publicized by a Japanese entrant in Q2 2025 that averaged 26 episodes per artist.
Immersive features constitute the newest front. A U.K. reader tested haptic feedback in December 2024, so action scenes trigger phone vibrations; pilot audiences read 17% more minutes than the control group. Patent filings hint that interactive choice tickets will soon allow multiple endings, sparking debates about canonical storylines and revenue splits. This convergence with gaming mechanics may redefine reader expectations and deepen stickiness in the Webtoon market.
Webtoons Industry Leaders
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Marvel Unlimited (Marvel Entertainment, LLC)
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SideWalk Group (WebComics App)
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Naver Webtoon Corp.
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Kakao Entertainment Corp. (Daum Webtoon, Piccoma)
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Lezhin Entertainment, LLC
- *Disclaimer: Major Players sorted in no particular order
Recent Industry Developments
- June 2025: Tencent Comics struck a USD 55 million pre-install deal with a Malaysian telecom firm.
- May 2025: Lezhin Entertainment invested USD 12 million in a Paris animation studio to speed European adaptations.
- April 2025: Bomtoon introduced a “creator accelerator” funding fifty Southeast Asian artists with USD 1,500 monthly stipends.
- March 2025: Tapas Media integrated a gas-free blockchain layer, shrinking tipping fees to under USD 0.001.
Research Methodology Framework and Report Scope
Market Definitions and Key Coverage
Our study defines the webtoons market as all vertically-scrolled digital comics optimized for smartphone screens, distributed through dedicated apps or browser platforms, and monetized via advertising, micro-transactions, or subscriptions. Webtoons that are reformatted from print or that appear only once in social feeds are counted when they meet the serialized, episodic criteria outlined in Mordor's scope.
Scope exclusion: Animated shorts, printed manhwa reissues, and merchandise royalties are outside this market.
Segmentation Overview
- By Genre (Type)
- Comedy
- Romance
- Action
- Sci-Fi
- Horror
- Other Genres
- By Revenue Model
- Advertisement-Supported
- Subscription-Based
- By Device/Application
- Mobile Smartphones
- Television and Connected TV
- Laptops and Desktops
- Tablets and e-Readers
- By Geography
- North America
- United States
- Canada
- Mexico
- South America
- Brazil
- Argentina
- Rest of South America
- Europe
- Germany
- United Kingdom
- France
- Italy
- Spain
- Rest of Europe
- Asia-Pacific
- China
- Japan
- South Korea
- India
- Rest of Asia-Pacific
- Middle East and Africa
- United Arab Emirates
- Saudi Arabia
- South Africa
- Rest of Middle East and Africa
- North America
Detailed Research Methodology and Data Validation
Primary Research
To validate desk findings, we interviewed platform managers, agency editors, digital advertisers, and payment-gateway integrators across Asia-Pacific, North America, and Europe. Follow-up surveys with frequent readers and indie creators clarified conversion rates from free views to paid episodes, guiding our pricing curves and churn assumptions.
Desk Research
Mordor analysts first gathered consumption and revenue baselines from non-paywalled tier-one bodies such as the Korea Creative Content Agency, UN Comtrade, Statista Digital Media Outlook, and national telecom regulators, supplemented by creator-royalty data visible in company 10-Ks and investor decks. Smartphone penetration, mobile ARPU, and streaming-platform subscription trends were tracked through ITU, GSMA Intelligence, and IMF economic tables. For company-level benchmarking, D&B Hoovers and Dow Jones Factiva supplied financial snapshots. These sources anchor volume, pricing, and user cohorts; many additional open datasets were referenced for cross-checks and are not exhaustively listed here.
Market-Sizing & Forecasting
A top-down build starts with smartphone user pools and average session minutes, which are then multiplied by observed view-to-pay conversion ratios to approximate gross spend. Select bottom-up roll-ups, sampled platform fee multiplied by active titles, and regional CPM audits calibrate these totals. Key variables include mobile data costs, creator payout rates, live-action adaptation counts, piracy incidence, and language-localization speed. A multivariate regression, updated annually, projects each driver and feeds an ARIMA overlay to smooth shocks such as policy changes. Where bottom-up samples lag, gaps are bridged with historical elasticity factors agreed on in expert calls.
Data Validation & Update Cycle
Model outputs pass anomaly flags, variance checks against new platform filings, and a two-step peer review before sign-off. Reports refresh every twelve months, with mid-cycle patches if M&A, regulation, or user-base swings shift fundamentals.
Why Mordor's Webtoons Baseline Earns Stakeholder Confidence
Published figures often diverge because firms pick different revenue models, exclude piracy leakage, or apply blanket CAGRs to smartphone growth.
Key gap drivers include: some studies fold print spin-offs into totals; others omit in-app coin breakage or use aggressive creator-royalty pass-throughs; several refresh biennially, missing recent 5G-fueled ARPU jumps that Mordor's live trackers capture.
Benchmark comparison
| Market Size | Anonymized source | Primary gap driver |
|---|---|---|
| USD 10.85 B (2025) | Mordor Intelligence | - |
| USD 10.65 B (2024) | Global Consultancy A | Excludes ad-supported views, uses three-year refresh cycle |
| USD 9.17 B (2024) | Trade Journal B | Bundles merchandise revenue with print, applies flat currency averages |
These contrasts show why Mordor's disciplined scope, annual refresh, and dual-path validation give decision-makers a transparent, repeatable baseline they can trust.
Key Questions Answered in the Report
What is the projected Webtoon market size by 2030?
The Webtoon market size is forecast to climb from USD 10.85 billion in 2025 to USD 48.31 billion in 2030, reflecting a 34.4% CAGR driven by mobile engagement and IP adaptations.
Which region currently leads the Webtoon market?
Asia-Pacific holds 61% of 2024 Webtoon market share, thanks to entrenched creator ecosystems in South Korea, Japan, and China.
How are platforms diversifying revenue beyond advertising?
Subscriptions, micro-payments, tipping, hybrid fast-lane tickets, and IP licensing now complement ads, spreading risk across multiple income streams.
Why is AI translation critical for the Webtoon industry?
Neural translation shortens localization from weeks to hours, enabling simultaneous global launches that cut piracy links by more than half and protect opening-week revenue.
Which devices will fuel the next wave of Webtoon consumption?
Connected TVs post a 41% CAGR, with voice navigation and family-sized screens fostering complementary night-time reading alongside weekday mobile sessions.
How does piracy affect long-term growth?
Mirror apps shave an estimated 5.4 percentage points off CAGR, so platforms prioritize convenience features and rapid localization to lure users back into legal channels.
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