Naver Webtoon said a pilot service that simultaneously publishes new episodes in Korea and global markets boosted payment amounts for titles by more than 200% compared with before the hiatus. The company plans to expand the "simultaneous serialization" model to actively counter overseas illegal translation sites.
Naver Webtoon on the 9th released an analysis of the impact on title revenue after it aligned the return timing of certain Korean original webtoons coming back from hiatus for both the Korean-language service and global language services. The pilot covered four titles published globally in multiple languages, including English, French, Thai and Indonesian: "A Child Like Me," "Contract Public Officer," "Iseop's Romance" and "Childhood Friend Complex."
The analysis found that for every title with simultaneous serialization, payment amounts and weekly readers for the first seven days after return rose sharply compared with the eight-week average before the hiatus. On global services, "Childhood Friend Complex" logged the highest growth, with payment amounts up about 208%. It was followed by "A Child Like Me" at 124%, "Contract Public Officer" at 96% and "Iseop's Romance" at 38%.
Weekly readers rose 82% for "Iseop's Romance" compared with before the hiatus, the highest growth rate among the titles. "A Child Like Me" increased 44%, "Contract Public Officer" 37% and "Childhood Friend Complex" 19%.
Typically, when a title returns after a long hiatus, it takes time to regain pre-hiatus metrics. Despite gaps of at least five months to one year, the pilot titles immediately exceeded pre-hiatus levels thanks to the simultaneous serialization effect. A Naver Webtoon official said, "As the official translated scripts are released at the same time as in Korea, without any time difference, we were able to capture users with a willingness to pay from among those who visit sites that provide illegal translations of Korean webtoons."
Alongside simultaneous serialization, Naver Webtoon plans to keep advancing its anti-piracy technology "Toon Radar" to strengthen countermeasures against illegal sites at home and abroad. In fact, the number of titles copied to domestic illegal sites immediately on the day the latest episode is posted on Naver Webtoon's Korean service fell about 80% in November compared with the average for the first through third quarters last year. As illegal sites slow their updates, usage and retention by their users appear to decline.
Kim Yong-su, president of webtoon entertainment, said, "Simultaneous serialization requires close collaboration between creators and the platform," adding, "We will build a fast and efficient translation support system to minimize creators' burdens while working to protect revenue lost to illegal sites."