News
Webtoon Industry Surpasses US$1.5 Billion in Sales for the 1st Time
posted on by Wonhee Cho
According to the "2024 WEBTOON Industry Survey" published by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) and the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) on December 2, the Korean WEBTOON industry recorded total sales of approximately US$1.5 billion in 2023, a 19.7% increase from around US$1.24 billion the previous year. This marks the first time the industry has exceeded US$1.5 billion in annual revenue.
The market has shown steady growth since MCST and KOCCA began tracking WEBTOON industry data in 2018. In 2017, total sales were about US$258 million. The figure surpassed US$716 million in 2020, and rose to roughly US$1.02 billion the following year.
Most of the revenue 2023 came from platform providers, which reported about US$959 million in total sales—accounting for 64.4% of the overall market. This constitutes a 25.0% increase from approximately US$767 million in 2022.
By export destination, Japan held the largest share at 40.3%, followed by North America (19.7%), the Greater China region (15.6%), Southeast Asia (12.3%), and Europe (8.2%).
Source: KOCCA
