Korea's webtoon industry grew by 48.6% year-on-year in 2021

[KOCCA]

Korea's webtoon industry grew by 48.6 percent in 2021 compared to the previous year, an end-of-the-year report from the Korea Creative Content Agency (Kocca) showed Thursday.

According to the report, the local industry with a current revenue of 1.56 trillion ($1.22 billion) won grew 312.21 percent compared to 2017, when webtoons and webtoon-based dramas were starting to gain traction in the Korean media landscape. The industry that year recorded an annual revenue of 379.9 billion.

Revenue created directly through webtoons took up 76.5 percent of the total revenue, an increase of 11.6 percentage points in 2021 compared to the year before. Of the 76.5 percent, 63.2 percent of the revenue was made through paid content, 17.4 percent through foreign content, 6 percent through publications, 2.8 percent through secondary copyrights and 1.7 percent through advertisements. Secondary copyrights refer to any form of content, merchandise or product based off of an original Intellectual Property (IP).

Business activities that were newly launched in the webtoon industry in 2021 included establishing affiliated production studios and creating and selling secondary content and products related to original IPs.

Webtoonists earned more than the average salary.

The yearly income of webtoonists who published webtoons consistently throughout the year averaged 118.7 million won, according to a survey by Kocca on 846 active webtoonists and 107 platforms.

That's 174.26 percent higher than the country's average annual income of 43.28 million won, according to data from National Tax Service.

For webtoonists who published webtoons inconsistently or wrapped up their work within the prior year, the yearly income averaged 85.73 million won.

Both average incomes increased, by 37.49 million won and 29.05 million won respectively, compared to 2020.

The report also shed light on the shadows of the local market, especially for its lack of new talent and online piracy.

Fifty-nine percent of webtoonists said they felt they were being unfairly treated or had unfair clauses in their contracts.

Reasons included contract clauses solely favorable to the production companies or platforms, refusing to change the content of the clauses before the contract was signed, and facing discrimination because the platform or production companies favor a certain webtoonist’s works above others.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]