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| Teaser images of webtoon "Yumi's Cells," right, and its series adaptation of the same name / Courtesy of tvN |
By Park Han-sol
The continued popularity of webcomics, or webtoons, has had a surprisingly positive impact on the publishing industry, as the digital works in high demand lead to the rise in sales of their print book forms, recent data showed.
The Korea Creative Content Agency surveyed 3,500 readers online, aged between 10 and 69 nationwide who consume webtoons and print comics, and found that 29 percent of the respondents said they have purchased the paper version of their favorite webcomics ― a 6.4-percentage-point increase from 2020.
In fact, three titles included in the respondents' top 10 list of favorite print comics this year have their origins as webtoons: "Yumi's Cells," "Itaewon Class" and "Solo Leveling."
One female teenage participant of the focus group interview, which was conducted in addition to the online survey, was quoted as saying, "I like the idea of being able to own my copy of a webtoon versus simply reading it once (digitally)."
Another male participant in his 20s noted: "I buy it for myself as well as for others' gifts. Reading a digital cartoon printed on a book's pages feels different from viewing it on a smartphone screen."
The survey also showed that webtoons continue to remain one of the dominant types of entertainment in the country, indicated by how frequent they are read and how many are willing to spend money for paid services.
Among the respondents, 42.9 percent stated that they consume digital cartoons at least three times a week ― a jump from 37.3 percent in 2020. And 45.7 percent answered that they have spent money ― from as little as 1,000 won ($0.76) or less to over 100,000 won per month ― for pay-per-view or sneak peek episodes.
With more than 100 webtoons having found varying degrees of success beyond smartphone screens over the last decade, getting adapted for the small and silver screens, 58.5 percent of the survey participants said they have consumed content that originated from web or print comics.
Their most favored format of adapted webtoons were television dramas at 47.4 percent, followed by films at 44.7 percent, when multiple answers were allowed.
One of the male teenage interviewees from the focus group noted that he finds it to be a fun experience watching and discovering how such television dramas interpreted the original webtoons.
But while the webcomics' forays into the silver and small screens have become an established practice, their potential expansions into the metaverse and the non-fungible tokens (NFT) sector were viewed with relative skepticism by the respondents.
Among them, 31.5 percent stated that they have no intention of consuming webtoon-inspired content on the metaverse, compared to 33.9 percent who said they would. The proportion of negative responses was even higher for webcomics-inspired NFTs, which stood at 45.4 percent compared to the 23.6 percent who expressed interest in consuming them.
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