Korea webtoons attracting global viewers with interesting plot and characters

K웹툰 날개를 달다... 탄탄한 스토리와 작화의 힘으로 글로벌 유저들 사로잡아

Online comic books, known as webtoons, have been popular in Korea for some time. Now Korea's webtoons are starting to find a global audience.
Our arts and culture correspondent Kim Bo-kyoung tells us more.
Korea webtoons are going viral.
And it's not just Koreans reading them, but fans from all around the world.
"During the exhibition, our author came by around four times and every time there were around seven to eight-hundred visitors, even including foreigners from the U.S."
Naver webtoon's daily content sales have recently surpassed 2-point-5 million U.S. dollars,... and the platform had more than 65-million active users this July.
Another webtoon platform, KakaoPage is also enjoying popularity overseas, especially in Japan.
"On Kakao Japan’s comic platform Piccoma, there are around 30-thousand titles. Korean webtoons take less than two-percent of the titles but account for around 40-percent of the platform’s sales.”
There are two main reasons why Korean webtoons are well-known in Japan.
"First of all, Korean webtoons are optimized for mobile. Japan's younger generations also enjoy webtoons while scrolling down on their mobiles. Also as Korean webtoons have developed over the past 20 years, the drawing style has improved a lot,... and people like how the story quickly unfolds."
Japan is not the only country enjoying Korean webtoons.
KakaoPage is expanding in South East Asia, with sales in Indonesia doubling every year since the firm launched there in 2018.
The company says it is aiming to enter other countries such as the U.S. and China.
KakaoPage's Overseas COO says the main reason behind the success of Korean webtoons is their stories.
"There are many titles with quick yet touching plots and interesting characters. This competitiveness is attracting global viewers as they are translated into different languages."
Given that webtoon authors themselves are becoming celebrities running personal channels,... it seems the popularity of Korean webtoons will only increase.
Kim Bo-kyoung, Arirang News.