Sales in Korea's webtoon industry topped 2 trillion won last year.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) said in the 2025 webtoon industry survey report released on the 29th that the size of the webtoon industry in 2024 is estimated at 2.2856 trillion won. That was up 4.4% from a year earlier.
Since 2018, when the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) and the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) began related surveys, webtoon industry sales have steadily grown. The market size, which was 379.9 billion won in 2017, reached 1.0538 trillion won in 2020, breaking the 1 trillion won mark, and recorded 1.5 trillion won the following year. It then exceeded 2 trillion won for the first time in 2023.
By region, Japan accounted for the largest share of webtoon exports at 49.5%. It was followed by North America (21.0%), Greater China (13.0%), Southeast Asia (9.5%) and Europe (6.2%).
By export type, online transmission rights accounted for most at 84.0%, followed by publishing rights (7.6%), licenses for derivative works (3.9%) and OEM (original equipment manufacturing) exports (3.0%).
On the import side, Japan also accounted for the largest share at 51.3%. Greater China was also high at 41.2%. Europe (4.2%), North America (2.3%) and Southeast Asia (0.9%) followed.
By import type, online transmission rights were the most at 76.0%, followed by publishing rights (20.1%) and licenses for derivative works (3.5%).
As the most important tasks recognized in advancing the webtoon business, support for attracting external funds and investment (42.2%) and stronger regulation of illegal-copy sites (35.4%) were cited. A KOCCA official said, "This shows there is strong demand for improving financing conditions and responding to illegal distribution to ensure stable business operations and performance in the webtoon industry."