K-Webtoon Revenue Surpasses 2 Trillion Won for Second Year... Export Focus on Japan and North America

2.2856 Trillion Won in Revenue, Up 4.4% from Previous Year

The annual revenue of the domestic webtoon industry has exceeded 2 trillion won for two consecutive years.

According to the "2025 Webtoon Industry Survey" report published on December 29 by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency, the webtoon industry recorded sales of 2.2856 trillion won in 2024. This represents a 4.4% increase compared to the previous year.

However, the Korea Creative Content Agency explained that, since this year's survey is the first to be conducted as a nationally approved statistic, there are differences in the calculation methods compared to previous surveys, and thus, the figures should be interpreted with caution.

In the export market, the concentration toward Japan and North America has intensified. By region, Japan accounted for 49.5% of exports, nearly half, followed by North America at 21.0%, Greater China at 13.0%, Southeast Asia at 9.5%, and Europe at 6.2%. Notably, the export share to Japan and North America increased by 9.2 percentage points and 1.3 percentage points, respectively, compared to the previous year, while the share to other regions such as Greater China declined across the board.

The key challenges identified by webtoon companies for business operations were support for attracting external funding and investment (42.2%), followed by strengthening regulations on illegal piracy sites (35.4%). This reflects the urgent need for improved financing conditions and enhanced copyright protection measures to ensure stable industry operations.

When expanding overseas, there was a common demand for support in localizing content for foreign markets (54.6%). By business type, platform operators cited support for overseas copyright issues (42.5%) as most needed, while content providers (CPs) indicated that building overseas distribution networks (66.1%) was their top priority.

Yoo Hyunseok, Acting President of the Korea Creative Content Agency, stated, "This report is significant in that it has established a national statistical foundation for systematically understanding the status of the K-Webtoon industry, which is expanding its influence in the global market. Based on the survey results, we will review industry issues and actively reflect them in policies and support programs."

The Korea Creative Content Agency also plans to publish a general report for public distribution, which will include the results of the webtoon author survey.