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WEBTOON’s PPS Program Celebrates 10th Anniversary with Staggering KRW 2 Trillion Growth, an 87-Fold Increase Over a Decade

- PPS, the first profit-sharing diversification model for creators, booms from KRW 23.2 billion to KRW 2.255 trillion in 10 years, showing an increase of more than 87 times
- The number of titles with annual GMV exceeding KRW 100 Million jumped from 1 to 904, “WEBTOON aims to double the number within 5 years”
- More than half of the titles serialized on WEBTOON in Korea are generating sales overseas, and 40 titles have exceeded 1 billion cumulative views
- WEBTOON rebranded PPS as Partners Profit Share Program, and aims to further expand support for creators
- Popular creators, including Gyusam Kim, shared their firsthand experiences collaborating with WEBTOON saying, “We have seen vast improvement in the creative environment”

 

April 25, 2023

 

WEBTOON celebrates 10th anniversary of its PPS Program, the business model package created to diversify creators’ profit. Throughout the decade, the annual size of PPS grew by over KRW 2 trillion. 

On April 25th, WEBTOON marked a decade of excellence with PPS Program and hosted media conference to showcase achievements. Junkoo Kim, founder and CEO of WEBTOON shared the company’s dedication to supporting the growth of the web comics industry as well as future plans for digital comics. 

 

■ Global Expansion of Digital Comics Market and Significant Increase in Creators' Profits: The Impact of WEBTOON's 10-Year Investment

 

In April 2013, WEBTOON launched its 'PPS Program', which provided creators with a revenue diversification model. This program was focused on three major sources of revenue, namely ▲ paid content sales, ▲ advertising revenue, and ▲ intellectual property (IP) business revenue. The program was introduced after being unveiled in March 2013, and was implemented in earnest from April of the same year.

Over the past decade, the PPS program has experienced significant growth, establishing itself as a leading ecosystem model where platforms and creators can grow together. In 2013, the PPS program generated approximately KRW 23.2 billion, but it has since expanded dramatically, with a current annual size of KRW 2.255 trillion in 2022 - an increase of more than 87 times compared to 10 years ago.

The rapid growth of the PPS program is rooted in the expansion of the digital comics industry's reach. Over the past decade, WEBTOON has made significant investments in the global market, seeking to expand the industry beyond its Korean origins and into the global arena. This effort has included a focus on expanding global services, such as Japanese and English translations, as well as actively seeking out local creators and expanding the user base by participating in local contests and comic conventions. 

 

CEO Junkoo Kim said, “When manuscript fees were virtually the only source of income for creators a decade ago, we envisioned the PPS program as a means for creators to work in a more stable environment that would enable them to focus on their craft. Our goal was to establish digital comics as a global industry. It brings me immense pleasure to see the fruits of the creators' labor and WEBTOON's investment coming together to establish web comics as a global industry that offers significant profit opportunities for creators, and I am proud to have played a part in this transformation.”

■ From 1 to 904: The Remarkable Increase in Titles with Annual GMV Exceeding KRW 100 Million and the Growing International Success of Serialized Korean Webtoons

 

As a result of WEBTOON's launch of the PPS program and expansion of the market base, the paid content model has also grown significantly in the digital comics market, which was previously centered on free viewing.

The number of digital comics and web novels that recorded an annual GMV of over KRW 100 million on the global storytech platform operated by WEBTOON, such as WEBTOON, NAVER SERIES, LINE WEBTOON, and LINE MANGA, increased significantly from 1 in 2013 to 904 in 2022. In 2022, a total of 136 titles recorded GMVs exceeding KRW 1 billion, with 5 titles even surpassing KRW 10 billion in GMV.

Digital comics from Korea have expanded globally, with 52% of the titles serialized on WEBTOON in Korean service generating sales overseas as of 2022.

The global platform established by WEBTOON has enabled creators to reach a wider audience and has significantly increased the cumulative number of views for popular titles. To date, 40 titles have exceeded 1 billion cumulative views, while 108 titles have amassed over 500 million views. Furthermore, WEBTOON's global platform currently boasts 85.6 million monthly users.

■ WEBTOON Rebranded PPS as Partners Profit Share Program, and Aims to Double the Number of Titles with KRW 100 Million Annual GMVs within 5 Years

 

WEBTOON's CEO Kim explained, “Unlike 10 years ago, digital comics market now extends beyond the realm of web pages to include games, videos, books, and merchandise. To reflect this evolution, we rebranded PPS as the "Partners Profit Share" program.” 

He added, "In the past, the focus was on sharing the revenue generated from the pages within the digital comics and web novel platform, but in the future, sales generated through various businesses based on the original IP will also grow. We are dedicated to providing creators with new opportunities for success, which is why we have made the decision to rebrand the program name.”

In the media conference, the new goals of the PPS Program were revealed. CEO Kim announced, “With the revamped PPS program, our goal is ▲ to increase the number of titles with an annual GMV of KRW 100 million or more to 2,000 titles by 2028, which is more than double the current number, and ▲ to have 500 or more titles generate an average monthly IP business sales of KRW 5 million by 2025."

The new PPS program aims to create a healthier ecosystem for the digital comics industry by increasing the number of IPs that generate hundreds of billions of KRW in revenue and expanding the base of creators who earn hundreds of millions of KRW annually.

■ WEBTOON Released 'WEBTOON With' Program, “We Will Continue to Expand Support for Creators”
CEO Kim announced that WEBTOON has created a program called 'WEBTOON With' which brings together policies, services, and technologies to make the creative ecosystem healthier. The PPS program is also part of WEBTOON With.

WEBTOON has been rolling out new features and support systems for its Manhwa Challenge and Best Challenge creators as part of its Webtoon With initiative. In particular, the dedicated system called 'CREATORS' has been introduced recently. The latest updates to the system include the 'statistics of titles' function and the 'episode booking function,' which were made available on March 2nd. These features allow amateur creators to monitor reader responses and streamline the creation process, respectively. Additionally, WEBTOON has introduced the 'comment management' function to protect creators from malicious comments, which went live on March 19th. WEBTOON is also committed to providing opportunities for profit generation for its amateur creators. A function aimed at enabling this is currently in development and scheduled to be introduced within the year.

In his concluding remark, CEO Junkoo Kim added, "Korea's digital comics ecosystem has expanded globally and the reader base has grown, but in the overseas market, we are competing fiercely with giant entertainment companies. As the global No. 1 storytech company, we will expand our support for creators with a sense of responsibility.”

 

The media conference was an opportunity for popular WEBTOON creators to share their firsthand experiences collaborating with the platform. One such creator, Gyusam Kim, said, “The creative ecosystem of WEBTOON fosters a virtuous cycle between creators and the platform, which is hard to come by in other content industries. Thanks to WEBTOON’s innovative system, the digital comics industry has experienced tremendous growth, and creators have seen vast improvement in the perception of and the creative environment for their work.”
 

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