With domestic and overseas shutdowns of major illegal webtoon sites coinciding with the government's strengthened blocking measures, new app installs on leading webtoon platforms surged by as much as 77%. As blocking illegal distribution can lead to actual revenue growth, expectations are rising for a recovery in results across the webtoon industry, which has been experiencing a slowdown.
According to Mobile Index on the 4th, new installs of major webtoon apps jumped across the board between on the 27th and May 1. Naver Webtoon's average daily new installs were 15,537, up about 31% from 11,853 the previous week (Apr. 20–Apr. 26). In particular, on Apr. 29, it recorded 16,421, the record high for April.
During the same period, Kakao Page also saw average daily new installs rise about 77%, from 4,119 to 7,305, and on Apr. 27 it hit a monthly record high of 9,150. Ridibooks likewise increased about 60%, from 3,868 to 6,186 over the same period.
This trend appears to have accelerated as recent measures to block illegal webtoon distribution have followed in quick succession. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in line with revisions to the Copyright Act, will implement an "emergency illegal site blocking and access blocking system" starting on the 11th, enabling immediate blocking of illegal sites without a separate review process. Following this news, on the 27th, Korea's largest illegal site "Newtoki" and related sites announced voluntary shutdowns. As of 2024, Newtoki's annual page views alone total about 4.3 billion.
Around the same time, overseas illegal sites were also shut down in succession. Webtoon platforms and the Korea Copyright Overseas Promotion Association closed "TuMangaOnline," a major illegal Spanish-language webtoon site. The site recorded about 86 million visits in Mar. 2025 alone and served as a large-scale illegal distribution channel, with the industry estimating losses in the tens of billions of won over several years.
The industry expects these measures to break out of the growth slowdown and lead to revenue recovery. Naver Webtoon (Webtoon Entertainment) posted fourth-quarter 2025 revenue of $330.69 million (about 486 billion won), down 6.3% from a year earlier. Monthly active users (MAU) in Korea fell 11.1% to 24 million, and other regions including the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia declined 8.4% to 110 million, underscoring the challenge of a slowing growth trend.
What stands out is that blocking illegal distribution translates into higher revenue. Comparing payments for 10 major titles in the first quarter depending on whether illegal copying was delayed, Naver Webtoon found that weekly payments rose an average of 23% when new paid episodes were not illegally distributed within 24 hours. The analysis is that readers who had used illegal sites returned to the official platforms and opened their wallets to view the latest updates.
A webtoon industry official said, "If users who left due to illegal distribution return to official platforms, it can have positive effects on both user growth and revenue, creating a virtuous cycle across the industry."