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WEBTOON presents the largest webcomics pop-up store to date

- TOON Festival, WEBTOON’s second pop-up store of the year, will be held at The Hyundai Seoul from September 5-17.

- The first pop-up store from June 29 to July 12 attracted 55,000 visitors... Doubling the number of products and quadrupling the space for the second one

- Industry's first 300 square meter large-scale offline webcomics pop-up store... WEBTOON strengthens IP business and 'win-win' with creators

 

(WEBTOON – August 31, 2023) WEBTOON is introducing a 300-square-meter offline pop-up store for the first time in the webcomics industry. The strategy is to create a solid webcomics ecosystem by attracting customers who are not WEBTOON fans through an eye-catching space and a variety of goods, and contributing to the growth of creator revenue.

 

WEBTOON will host its second official pop-up store, 'TOON Festival', from September 5-17 at a large venue in the basement of The Hyundai Seoul. The pop-up store held at Starfield COEX Mall from June 29 to July 12 was a huge success, attracting more than 55,000 visitors in two weeks, so WEBTOON immediately began preparations for the second pop-up store. 

 

WEBTOON's 'TOON Festival' pop-up store at The Hyundai Seoul is the same as the first pop-up store, featuring the worlds of the popular webcomics Meow Man (written and drawn by Olso) and Maru is a Puppy (written and drawn by Mojo). Both the variety of products and the space have been greatly increased to provide a new experience for returning visitors.

 

The pop-up store will feature a total of 507 products, including two products exclusive to the TOON Festival. The number of products has been doubled from the first pop-up store. The total space has also been quadrupled to 300 square meters, including photo zones where customers can enjoy taking pictures.

 

"WEBTOON's The Hyundai Seoul pop-up store is the largest pop-up store based on webcomics IPs in terms of both product types and space," said Lee Ji-hyung, head of the Children's and Tenant Team at Hyundai Department Store's Merchandise Division. "We believe that various retailers will pay more attention to webcomics IPs due to their strong fan base and purchasing power.".

 

For safety reasons, the pop-up store is only open to customers who have made a reservation. During the first round of pop-up store operations, when only on-site reservations were accepted, customers lined up at dawn to reserve their spot, and on weekends, reservations were closed as soon as the store opened. WEBTOON has changed the way it reserves admission to prevent crowds and ensure safety, offering two reservation methods: advance online reservation and on-site reservation. Online advance reservations, which began on August 30, were fully booked for the whole period of operating days within two hours. 

 

WEBTOON is expanding its IP business in various ways, including video adaptation, publishing, music, crowdfunding, games, emojis, MD products, etc. The number of ways for WEBTOON creators to monetize their webtoon IP has increased significantly from 9 in 2013 to 21 in 2022, and the number of WEBTOON titles earning additional revenue from IP business has exploded from 8 per year in 2013 to 415 per year last year.

 

Strengthening IP business is part of WEBTOON's creative ecosystem support program 'WEBTOON WITH'. Not only can creators increase their revenue through various business opportunities utilizing their original IP, but they can also run additional businesses while focusing on their creativity with WEBTOON's all-round support. For this pop-up store, WEBTOON took care of everything from product production to physical space design on behalf of the creators who are currently serializing the titles.  

 

A representative from WEBTOON said, "We were able to confirm the tremendous purchasing power of webcomics fandom as the maximum payment amount per person reached KRW 1.16 million during the first pop-up store. Various industries are currently sending requests for business cooperation with WEBTOON IPs." (End)