Newtoki, cited as the largest webtoon and web novel distribution site in Korea, was found to have shut down on the 27th.
According to the IT industry on the 27th, Newtoki's operators posted a "service termination" notice on their website that day and stopped displaying content that had been illegally copied. The notice added, "There are absolutely no plans to resume the service in the future," and "any site that uses a similar name going forward is an impersonation site unrelated to this service."
Newtoki emerged after "Bamtoki," the previous largest illegal webtoon site in Korea, shut down in 2018. In addition to webtoons, it also ran "Manatoki" for the illegal distribution of Japanese manga and "Booktoki" for web novel distribution. According to traffic analytics firm Similarweb, as of last month, visits to Newtoki's website were estimated at about 126 million.
According to estimates in 2024, the damage to the webtoon industry caused by Newtoki at the time reached 39.8 billion won, and if the illegal revenue Newtoki earned in the period since is added, the damage is expected to be greater.
Newtoki's operators did not separately explain the background behind the decision to shut down the website. Meanwhile, the Newtoki operator was reported to have naturalized in Japan in 2022 to evade investigation.