By Juyeon Ren Lee

1. Digital Comic Content

2. Contents
Definition of the terms
Digital Comic in Korea
Webtoon in Korea
Use-pattern of Webtoon in Korea
Webtoon Ranking in Korea
Digital Comic in Japan
Use-pattern of Digital Comic in Japan
Comic Ranking in Japan
Research Plan

3. Definition of the terms
Digital Comic
 Digital Comic is not paper based comic, but electronic material.
 It is usually read by digital devices such as personal computers, cellular phones,
tablets and so on.
 It includes both the scanned versions of published comic books and original comic
content which is only available for digital handsets.
 It is also called Online Comic because it is read by connecting Internet or some mobile
lines.

4. Definition of the terms
Webtoon
 Webtoon is a combination of "web" and "cartoon“.
 it is popular digital comic in Korea.
 This is different from online comics simply scanned books and uploaded
page-by-page. All Webtoons are created with some image editors or other
internet tools so that they are optimized for online reading.

5. Digital Comic in Korea
The readers of non digital comics fell to 53.1%.
The readers of digital comics are expected above 47%.
83% of the readers of digital comics, used the portal site such as Naver and Daum.
Naver operates ‘Naver Books’, the biggest provider of Webtoon. Daum operates ‘Daum
Comic World’, it also services Webtoon.
Use-pattern of Comics 2011 Use-pattern of Digital Comics 2011
15%
53% Portal site
Offline
83% Comic site
Online
Etc
 Offline means Comic reading by paper based materials.
 Online means Comic reading by digital devices such as a computer and a cellular phone.
 Portal sites include Naver and Daum, Comic sites provide only online comics, for instance Mr.blue.
 Total percentage is not 100%.
 Data by White Paper of Comic industry 2011
 1500 people who have ever read comics, 10 year-old~59 year-old

6. Webtoon in Korea
According to the latest research, Naver has about 7 million Webtoon readers. As for
Daum, 3 million.
Webtoon readers of Naver account for 20%, and those of Daum are 9% of all Internet
users.
Some insist that the users of Daum and Naver are repeated. Therefore, the users of
Naver could be considered as the representative of Webtoon readers in Korea.
(Feature and Status of Webtoon 2012/韓国コンテンツ振興院)
User number and Reaching rate on Naver and Daum 2012 Jan~Jul
Provider Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
Naver pure visitor 7,658,778 7,472,393 7,072,086 7,082,074 7,108,458 6,919,548 7,103,252
(people)
reaching rate(%) 23.93 23.35 22.1 22.02 22.1 21.51 21.16
Daum pure visitor 3,054,754 3,147,381 3,123,743 2,977,259 2,994,975 3,077,176 3,033,127
(people)
reaching rate(%) 9.54 9.83 9.76 9.26 9.31 9.57 9.03
 Pure visitor: person who visited the webtoon site more than once during the period.
 Reaching rate: the percentage of visitors on webtoon site of all Internet users.
 Data by Nillson Korean Click(www.koreanclick.com)

7. Use-pattern of Webtoon in Korea
Webtoon readers stay the site about 13min~18min in one visit.
And they visit the site 3days~5days a month.
Users don’t spend much time on Webtoon site, but Webtoon reading is regarded as a
general entertainment in Korea. (Feature and Status of Webtoon 2012/韓国コンテンツ振興
院)
Length and Frequency of visit on Naver and Daum 2012 Jan~Jul
Provider Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
Naver length of visit time 102.17 89.08 83.65 89.48 92.19 85.06 82.87
(min/month)
length of visit time 19.57 18.29 17 17.86 17.8 18.65 18.05
(min/one visit)
frequency of visit 5.22 4.87 4.92 5.01 5.18 4.56 4.59
day(day/month)
Daum length of visit time 49.61 47.77 52.25 48.29 57.12 52.67 57.49
(min/month)
length of visit time 13.82 12.88 14.35 12.54 14.5 14.51 16.24
(min/one visit)
frequency of visit 3.59 3.71 3.64 3.85 3.94 3.63 3.54
day(day/month)
 length of visit time(min/month): the average length of time that users stay on the webtoon site during one month.
 length of visit time(min/one visit): the average length of time that users stay on the webtoon site during one visit.
 frequency of visit day(day/month): the average number of days that pure visitors revisit the site during one month.
 Data by Nillson Korean Click(www.koreanclick.com)

8. Webtoon Ranking in Korea
When Webtoon appeared first time, it usually treats trivial life affairs. The origin of
Webtoon is a diary with pictures on an web blog.
Webtoon has been developed since Portal sites such as Naver, Daum, Paran, Nate, and
Empas, started Webtoon service as their content. Webtoon has a lot of stories.
Now, Webtoon controls Comic Publishing Industries. According to the recent research, 4
Webtoons are ranked in Best 5.
Webtoon Ranking on Naver 2012 Aug Published Comics Ranking 2012 Aug
Rank Title of Webtoon Rank Title of Comics Type of Comics
1 Sound of Heart 1 Dieter Webtoon
2 Noblesse 2 Acoustic Life Webtoon
3 Got of Highschool 3 Mask of Woman Action
4 Tower of God 4 MAJO & SADY Webtoon
5 With God 5 Dress Code Webtoon
 Data by Monthly Content Market(Korea Creative Content Agency/2012-09)

9. Digital Comic in Japan
78.2% of people read Comics that are both published and digital materials.
People who read Digital Comics are less than 20%.
 Data by マンガに関するアンケート2012(NTTレゾナント)
 1939 people, 15 year-old~44 year-old.

10. Use-pattern of Digital Comic in Japan
Only 18.3% people use feature phones to read Digital Comics.
39.4% people use smartphones to read Digital Comics but more people read novels with
smartphones.
50.7% people use personal computers to read Digital Comics.
Mobile phone is not the most popular device for Digital Comics any more.
 Data by 電子書籍の利用動向に関する調査(MTI)
 960 people, 20 year-old~69 year-old.

11. Comic Ranking in Japan
‘ONE PIECE’ is the most favorite comic regardless of age and sex.
This ranking includes all type of comics:published comics, digital comics, however all
comics ranked in the chart, are originally published comics.
Contrary to Korea, where Webtoons are stronger than published comics, in Japan, it is
clear that published comics have strong power.
 Data by マンガに関するアンケート2012(NTTレゾナント)
 1939 people, 15 year-old~44 year-old.

12. Research Plan
I plan to compare Korean Webtoon with Japanese Digital Comics.
As for Japan, it is difficult to focus on either Mobile Comics or Computer Based
Comics.
I have to collect more data, and start to outline my thesis.