‘Support for Webtoon Overseas Expansion’ Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, 8th Content Export Strategy Meeting

Discussion on Support Measures to Strengthen the Status of the Webtoon Origin Country

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 2nd that it held the "8th Content Export Strategy Meeting" chaired by First Vice Minister Jeon Byeong-geuk at the Gwanghwamun branch of the Korea Creative Content Agency to discuss support measures for overseas expansion in the webtoon sector.

At this meeting, industry representatives from the KCCA Hallyu Support Headquarters, Korea Manhwa Contents Agency’s Manhwa Contents Business Office, Kakao Entertainment, Naver Webtoon, Lockin Korea, Jaedam Media, as well as officials from the Korea Cartoonists Association, Webtoon Association, and Korea Webtoon Industry Association gathered to discuss support strategies for overseas expansion in the webtoon field.

According to a survey on webtoon businesses, the domestic webtoon industry has rapidly grown from 379.9 billion KRW in 2017 to 1.566 trillion KRW in 2021. Korean webtoons are also actively expanding overseas, with Korean companies such as Piccoma and Line Manga accounting for over 70% of the Japanese webtoon market. Korean webtoons are gaining popularity in North America and Europe as well, with webtoon platforms making full-scale entries into these markets.

Recently, there has been an increase in adaptations of webtoon intellectual properties (IP) into video content, such as "D.P. Dog Days" (Netflix’s "D.P."), "Kingdom: Burning Hell" (Netflix’s "Kingdom"), and "All of Us Are Dead" (Netflix’s "All of Us Are Dead"), highlighting the expansion potential of webtoons.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism operates various support projects to promote the Korean webtoon industry, including content creation support, business development, and workforce training.

Through policies supporting the establishment and operation of overseas comic platforms, hosting overseas business events and participation in markets, and translation of export works, the ministry backs the overseas expansion of webtoons. This meeting discussed necessary support measures for Korean webtoons to continue leading the global market.

During the meeting, opinions were raised emphasizing the need for customized nurturing and support policies for webtoon companies entering overseas markets. Continuous support is required to provide overseas local information and discover business models for small and medium webtoon platforms, and there were calls to strengthen support for individual companies’ autonomous participation in overseas markets.

There was also a suggestion to promptly establish domestic and international standard identification systems related to webtoons to respond to the rapidly changing market environment. Additionally, requests were made for localization support such as translation of overseas expansion works, expansion of professional workforce training, and strengthening measures against illegal distribution of webtoons.

Based on the voices heard from the industry at this meeting, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism plans to develop effective, field-tailored support policies to promote the continuous overseas expansion of Korean webtoons and further strengthen its status as the origin country of webtoons.