Kakao Entertainment Transparently Discloses Webtoon Artist Payments

[Asia Economy Reporter Bu Aeri] Kakao Entertainment unveiled an improvement plan on the 20th focusing on transparency in settlements for webtoon and web novel authors. Kakao Entertainment had been embroiled in allegations of commission abuse during the recent National Assembly audit.

The improvement plan disclosed by Kakao Entertainment includes a measure to guarantee at least a 5% share of event cash settlements for pre-invested works. Event cash is free cash provided by Kakao Page to users to promote the sales of works.

Kakao Entertainment plans to ensure that content providers with fewer event cash benefits receive a minimum total revenue share rate of 60%. The contract with content providers will also explicitly state the "guarantee of at least 5% event cash settlement share."

Additionally, the improvement plan includes ▲ efforts to build a settlement system that allows authors to directly check their settlement status ▲ expansion of works benefiting from "Wait and Free" (Gidamoo) ▲ preparation of support measures for low-income creators.

On the same day, Kakao Entertainment also revealed the actual settlement rate structure of Kakao Page. The actual settlement rate is the settlement ratio based on the amount users actually paid. According to the cumulative settlement rate statistics for pre-invested works on Kakao Page from January to August this year, a total of 69% of revenue was distributed to content providers (CP + authors), combining actual content payment share (55%) and event cash settlement share (14%). The payment commission was 8%, and Kakao Entertainment's revenue share was 23%.

Kakao Entertainment also prepared an improvement plan to enhance settlement transparency, which authors had requested. The plan is to systematize the detailed settlement information previously provided only to CP companies so that authors can also verify it.

Kakao Entertainment intends to fulfill its responsibility as a platform by taking corrective actions if unfair contracts or opaque settlements are discovered. It also plans to create communication channels with authors in collaboration with various organizations such as the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and associations.

A Kakao Entertainment official said, "Kakao Entertainment will thoughtfully consider and improve measures for the domestic creative ecosystem one by one. We will create an environment where various genres of webtoons and web novels can be created for the domestic creative ecosystem and sequentially announce improvement plans to nurture emerging authors, who are the foundation of the industry."