WEBTOON

 

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A webtoon (Korean: 웹툰), also known as webcomic, was originally created in South Korea; Daum created a webtoon portal in 2003, followed by Naver in 2004. As of July 2014, Naver had published 520 webtoons and launched LINE Webtoon, while Daum had published 434. Daum Webtoon and NAVER Webtoon continuously release on a set schedule from licensed webtoon artists and both of them let webtoon fans to read new and diverse comics everyday for free.

The most popular webtoons are Tower of God, Noblesse, Girls of the Wild's, God of High School, The Sound of Your Heart and etc.

Webtoon creators can be students, housekeepers, office workers. Some Webtoons have been translated from Korean to English since 2010 by Webtoon Live.

Pre-first generation webtoons were scanned original comics uploaded to the Internet. They were formatted in a horizontal layout.

First generation

The first generation inserted flash effects to enhance existing generation zero comics. Flash animation effects were used to build up a sense of tension. Other comics used zoom-in and Zoom-out functions, often to represent the passage of time.

Second generation

The second generation adopted a vertical layout. This enhanced cinematic representation, as scrolling allowed the passage of time to be shown naturally. Effects like fading became more common. Due to the development of those techniques, and enhanced preloading, reading became faster and more fluid. This allowed better expression of the author's intent, and lead to the creation of the epic webtoon series of the 2000s.

This is an example of a second generation webtoon.

Third generation

Third generation webtoons are predicted to take into account the advent of the smartphone, the tablet, wireless networking, and the e-book format. They will likely combine movement, sound, and special effects.

Market

The publishing industry is currently the primary means of comic retail. With the advent of digital comics, offering content online at the same time as comic publication has recently received increasing attention.

Another method of comic content distribution has to be utilized in practice for theater, TV animation, advertising, videos, etc.

One-Source Multi-Use (OSMU; see also media mix) is a marketing method that has been defined as enabling the "free sharing and distribution of single content via the smart device that they have". Webtoons are used as a medium for OSMU.

Example of OSMU:

Cultural industries	example
Movie	Hello, Schoolgirl / 순정만화 (Kang Pool / 강풀), Apart / 아파트 (Kang Pool / 강풀), I Love You / 그대를 사랑합니다 (Kang Pool / 강풀), BA:BO / 바보 (Kang Pool / 강풀), Trace / 트레이스 (Ko Young-hoon / 고영훈), Moss / 이끼 (Yoon Tae-ho / 윤태호), Shin gwa hamkke / 신과함께 (Joo Ho-min / 주호민), Secretly, Greatly / 은밀하게 위대하게 (HUN / 훈), The Neighbors / 이웃사람 (Kang Pool/ 강풀), Fashion King / 패션왕 (Kian84 / 기안84), Killer boonsik / 킬러분식 (Han / 한)
Drama	Mary Stayed Out All Night / 매리는 외박중 (Won Soo-yeon / 원수연), Ari-dong last cowboy / 아리동 라스트 카우보이 (Jepigaru / 제피가루), Ssapnida chunrima mart / 쌉니다 천리마 마트 (Kim Gyu-sam / 김규삼), Cheese in the Trap / 치즈인더트랩 (Soonkki / 순끼), Misaeng / 미생 (Yoon Tae-ho / 윤태호)
Game	Ragnarok / 라그나로크 (Gravity / 그라비티), Berkanix / 베르카닉스 (Choirock games / 초이락 게임즈)
Animation	Wara! pyeoun-i jumb / 와라! 편의점 (Ji Kang-min / 지강민), Miho story / 미호이야기 (Hyejin-yang / 혜진양), Ssapnida chunrima mart / 쌉니다 천리마 마트 (Kim Gyu-sam / 김규삼), Notgi ma jungshin jool / 놓지마 정신줄 (Shin Tae-hoon, Na Seung-hoon / 신태훈, 나승훈)
Musical, Play	The Great Gatsby / 위대한 개츠비 (Kang Do-ha / 강도하), Babo / 바보 (Kang Pool), Sunjeong Manhwa / 순정만화 (Kang Pool / 강풀)
Character product	Marine Blues / 마린블루스 (Jeong Cheol-yeon / 정철연), Wara! pyeoun-i jumb / 와라! 편의점 (Ji Kang-min / 지강민) / Yangmal Dokkaebi(Manmulsang / 만물상), Oeje, onuel, Kurigo Nail / 어제, 오늘 그리고 내일( Paek Tofu)

 

Prior to 2014, most webtoons were only available in English through unofficial fan translations. In July 2014, Naver-subsidiary Line began publication of translations of popular webtoons to the English market via the Line Webtoon service.

Naver, which is Korea’s top search portal, launched its LINE Webtoon service in 2004, and now it has the biggest Webtoon market in Korea. According to NAVER’s official statistics, it has more than 6.2 million daily users using the Webtoon service in Korea, vitalizing Korea’s comic industry. It has now become a new cultural phenomenon as some of the NAVER Webtoons are created as movies and stationery products. As Webtoon started to become popular among foreign fans, NAVER selected 42 cartoons including “Noblesse”, “The God of High School”, and “Tower of God”, and launched free LINE Webtoon translation service for foreign fans in the U.S. and worldwide. As the LINE Webtoon service expands its market to global, widening the range of subscribers, it is now joining the "Korean Wave[Hallyu]."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webtoon