Why Webtoons?
Korean Webtoons and Manhwa
Course 1 · Chapter 1 · Why Webtoons? Scope & Sources
A webtoon is a comic built to be read by scrolling on a phone, and the format started in South Korea. That much is easy to say. Almost everything after it, such as who made the first one, how big the market is and why print comics declined, is stated differently in different places. This course reads the medium from open sources, keeps each claim attached to its owner, and uses that to show how the industry works. This first chapter sets the words, the scope and the method.
The Words
Manhwa
The Manhwa article calls manhwa (만화) "the general Korean term for comics and print cartoons", adding that "outside Korea, the term usually refers to Korean comics". It says the Korean manhwa, the Japanese manga and the Chinese manhua are cognates, written with the same characters, and that "their histories and influences intertwine". It also says the influx of manga into Korea "had a strong effect on the art and content of many artists' manhwa". That is the article's account, and I did not check it.
Webtoon
The Webtoon article defines webtoons (웹툰) as "a type of episodic digital comics that originated in South Korea usually meant to be read on smartphones". The Manhwa article says the word is a portmanteau of Korean web and cartoon, and was "first coined on 8 August 2000, by Chollian, one of South Korea's oldest and now discontinued internet service engines". The Webtoon article lists the format's usual traits:
- each episode is "one long, vertical strip" on an "infinite canvas", easy to read on a phone;
- some have music and animation within each chapter;
- unlike most East Asian comics, they are "usually in color", because they are published digitally and not in a magazine.
Who Was First? A Table of Claims
The articles give several starting points, and which one counts depends on what you mean by "webtoon". The table lists them as the articles give them.
| Claim | Where |
|---|---|
| "South Korea's first webtoon is Uninhabited Island (무인도) by Han Hee-jak in 1996." | Webtoon article |
| "The advent of the webtoon model dates back to 2000, when Lycos Korea... launched the comic Bang section in their portal site." Yahoo! Korea followed two years later with Cartoon Sesang. | Webtoon article |
| The word "webtoon" was first coined on 8 August 2000 by Chollian. | Manhwa article |
| Kang Full "revolutionized the vertical scrolling format in 2003" with Soonjeong Manhwa on Media Daum. | Webtoon article |
| Daum Webtoon was created in 2003; Naver Webtoon was launched in 2004. | Webtoon article |
| The platform called Webtoon "launched in 2004 by Naver Corporation", but also "was founded in South Korea in 2005 by CEO Junkoo Kim". | Webtoon (platform) article, both statements |
| Naver's site "started in 1999, but it initially had a muted response as a hidden menu". | Webtoon (platform) article |
| Official English translations began in July 2014; "prior to 2014, most webtoons were only available in English through unofficial fan translations". | Webtoon article |
Taken together, the articles do not name one first webtoon. The 1996 title is a "first" for the scanned or simple web comic, the 2000 claims are about the portal model and the word, 2003 is about the vertical scroll as the article describes it, and 2004 or 2005 is about the platform that later went global. The Webtoon article's three-"generation" outline backs this reading: scanned comics uploaded online, then flash animation, then vertical scroll with preloading, then phones and tablets. The generations run in that order in the article, and it gives no dates for most of them.
Numbers, and Why to Check Them
| Figure | Where, and what is odd |
|---|---|
| "Webtoons make roughly $5.91 billion globally." | Webtoon article. The Webtoon (platform) article repeats $5.91 billion but says "in just the U.S. alone". The two articles give the same number for different places, so at most one is right, and neither gives a year or source I could see. |
| The market for webtoons and derivatives "is currently valued at around KR₩420 billion (US$368 million)". | Webtoon article. "Currently" has no date, and the article places this beside global figures that are far larger. |
| "Comics account for a quarter of all book sales in South Korea", with "more than 3 million Korean users paid" and "10 million users read free webtoons". | Webtoon article, attributed to a Bloomberg writer. No year is given. |
| "Naver's Webtoon service... reaches over 6.2 million daily users" and "180 million monthly active users (MAUs) worldwide" as of September 2023. | Webtoon article. The first has no date, and the second is a different measure (monthly, worldwide), so the two cannot be compared. |
| "Posting comic content for free caused the $3 billion South Korean book and comic industry to rapidly collapse." | Webtoon (platform) article. A causal claim, with no source in the passage I read. The Manhwa article offers a different cause: that most manhwa went online "due to economic collapse that South Korea had experienced at the end of the millennium". |
What the Course Covers, and Leaves Out
It covers South Korean comics from print to the web: the print history, the move online, how a webtoon is made and paid for, the genres and well-documented hits, adaptations for screen, the spread overseas, the people who make webtoons, and the rules and disputes around them (Chapters 2 to 9). Chapter 10 turns those threads into a checklist for reading any claim about the medium.
It leaves out Japanese manga and Chinese manhua as subjects, except where the sources use them to explain Korean comics; North Korean comics; reviews that rank titles by quality; plot summaries beyond what a chapter needs; and any recommendation of where to read unofficially. K-pop, drama and literature have their own courses (K-Pop, K-Drama and Korean Film, Korean Literature), and webtoons appear there only where they connect.
Where to look next
The Webtoon (platform) article names the platform's own site, Webtoons.com, and the Webtoon article names other services that carry Korean comics, including Tappytoon, Spottoon, Lezhin Comics, Toomics and TopToon, plus Kakao's offerings. I opened none of these, so this is only a list of names taken from the articles. Before you rely on one, check that its page is the official one, and note that features, prices and catalogues change and are not stable facts.
A Method for the Rest of the Course
- Whose claim? Attach every date and figure to an article or a company.
- What does "first" mean? The first webtoon, the first portal, the first scroll and the first English translation are different questions.
- What is measured? Users, revenue and views are different things, and a "market" can mean Korea or the world.
- What caused what? Be careful with sentences that say one thing "caused" a collapse or a boom.
- What is missing? A gap, such as a number with no year, is a result too.
Exercises
Define manhwa and webtoon as the articles give them, name three traits of the webtoon format, and say when and by whom the word "webtoon" was first coined, according to the Manhwa article.
Using the table of claims, give three different answers to "who was first?" and say what each one is first at. Then explain why the Webtoon (platform) article's statements about 2004 and 2005 count as an inconsistency.
Pick two figures from the numbers table and say what you would need to know before using each in your own writing. Then give the two different causes the articles offer for the move of comics online.
Quick Reference
- Manhwa: the general Korean term for comics; abroad, usually Korean comics
- Webtoon: episodic digital comic, vertical scroll, usually colour, made for phones; the word first coined 8 August 2000 (Chollian), per the Manhwa article
- Starting points claimed: 1996 (Uninhabited Island), 2000 (Lycos Korea, Yahoo! Korea 2002), 2003 (Daum; Kang Full's scroll), 2004/2005 (Naver Webtoon), July 2014 (official English)
- Figures to treat with care: $5.91 billion (global or U.S.?), KR₩420 billion, 6.2 million daily users, 180 million monthly users
- Check: every first, every figure and every "caused", in every chapter
Next chapter: Manhwa Before the Web, which covers print comics in Korea: the early history, comic-rental rooms, regulation and the decline that set up the move online.