[Exclusive] Naver Webtoon Establishes AI and Data Division... Striking Webtoon Goldmine with 'Kepler'

Integration of Data Workforce with Webtoon AI
Introduction of Webtoon Data Platform 'Kepler' Within the Year
Advancement of Data-Driven Revenue Models

Naver Webtoon has established a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data organization. The goal is to create a data analysis platform specialized for webtoons called 'Kepler' within this year and apply it globally. This is to enhance the revenue model through data, especially as the company aims for an initial public offering (IPO) on the U.S. stock market next year.

Naver Webtoon CI

Last month, Naver Webtoon created a new 'Webtoon AI&Data' organization. They consolidated data-related personnel scattered across various departments and merged them with the AI organization 'Webtoon AI.' Additionally, they established two new teams, organizing a total of five teams: ▲Data Planning Team, which plans how to utilize data ▲Data Engineering Team and Data Ops Team, which process data to make it analyzable ▲Data Analysis Team ▲Data Science Team, which integrates AI. Including about 50 AI and data personnel from Webtoon AI, the total team size is around 90 members. Kim Daesik, the lead of Webtoon AI&Data who previously led Webtoon AI, oversees the organization. Kim said, "We set up the organization according to the data lifecycle," adding, "We plan to hire more and grow the team to about 100 members."

The first mission is to build the data analysis platform 'Kepler.' It is a platform that allows non-data experts to utilize webtoon data in their work. The name is derived from 'Kepler's Laws,' discovered by the astronomer Johannes Kepler. These planetary motion laws played a crucial role in discovering new stars. Similarly, the platform aims to discover value from vast amounts of data.

Kim Dae-sik, Lead of Webtoon AI & Data at Naver Webtoon
[Photo by Naver Webtoon]

The priority for data utilization is to advance the business model. As part of this, in the second half of this year, the webtoon recommendation method will be fully switched to an 'AI Curator.' The recommendation technology has been refined by reflecting detailed user data such as actual viewing and payment, not just clicks. This is increasing the number of paid users. Kim explained, "Users who directly pay for a webtoon are more sincere about the work than those who accidentally clicked or viewed it through free events," adding, "Only by looking at such data can precise recommendations be made."

The next target area after recommendations is advertising. Webtoons have grown into a popular advertising medium worldwide. Naver Webtoon operates various products such as banner ads and product placement (PPL). Kim said, "There are many monetization opportunities in webtoons, and advertising is one of them," adding, "We plan to use data for ad targeting and performance analysis." This is expected to diversify the revenue model, which currently centers on user payments.

The reason for applying 'Kepler' globally first is that the webtoon market has greater growth potential outside Korea, where the market is more mature. Although user data varies by country, many 'gold mines' of data remain untapped as revenue models have not yet been established. Naver Webtoon aims to enter the U.S. stock market next year. Increasing corporate value through monetization is the biggest challenge. In the mid to long term, the goal is to conduct new experiments based on data. Kim added, "There are more opportunities to try data-driven initiatives globally than in Korea," and "We will build a business model with a webtoon-specialized platform and improve employee efficiency through data literacy."