Naver Webtoon Operates Official Popup Store for 'Garbage Time'... IP Business Achieves 7 Billion KRW in Sales

Naver Webtoon announced on the 25th that it will operate an official popup store for the webtoon "Garbage Time" on the 3rd floor of Times Square in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul, until the 7th of next month.

The popular basketball webtoon Garbage Time gained such popularity that its intellectual property (IP) business revenue alone reached 7 billion KRW last year. All reservations for visiting the Garbage Time popup store, held on the 15th, were fully booked within one hour of opening. Currently, Naver Webtoon plans to operate this popup store with 100% advance reservations for safety.

Garbage Time is a work that reached the quarterfinals of the 2017 Naver Webtoon Strongest Battle and is a story adapted from the true story of the Busan Jungang High School basketball team. It started serialization in March 2019 and concluded this month, and is currently being serialized in Japanese and Chinese as well. Through various businesses utilizing the original IP, such as merchandise, Samsung Electronics Galaxy Z Flip5 Garbage Time edition, printed volumes, audio webtoons, emoticons, and OSTs, the additional revenue earned beyond serialization last year exceeded 7 billion KRW, demonstrating its popularity.

Strengthening IP business is part of Naver Webtoon's creative ecosystem support program, Webtoon With. Creators can increase their earnings through various business opportunities using the original IP while retaining copyright ownership, and with comprehensive support from Naver Webtoon, they can focus solely on creation while managing additional businesses. As the influence of webtoon and web novel IPs grows, the number of Naver Webtoon works generating additional revenue from IP businesses such as video, publishing, gaming, and music increased from 8 titles annually in 2013 to 415 titles annually in 2022.

Garbage Time author, CEO 2, said, "Thanks to Naver Webtoon's full support, I was able to simultaneously carry out a large-scale IP business, which would have been almost impossible alone, while continuing serialization."

Naver Webtoon is also engaging in webtoon IP merchandise business overseas. In Bangkok, Thailand, since the 18th of this month, Naver Webtoon has been operating the official popup store for the local webtoon "I’m the most beautiful count," discovered by Naver Webtoon. This is the first official popup store operated by Naver Webtoon in the Southeast Asia region.

In November last year, Naver Webtoon soft-launched "Webtoon Shop," an online brand store selling made-to-order products using webtoon IP for its English service. Additionally, IP collaborations are planned with various North American partners such as Bioworld, FigPin, and Scholastic. In April, Walter Foster, a publisher specializing in drawing books and coloring books, will release coloring and drawing books using the English original webtoons "Morgana and Oz" and "Boyfriends" IPs.