Webtoon Entertainment reported a revenue of 507.9 billion won for the second quarter of this year, a 2.8% decrease compared to the same period last year, primarily due to currency fluctuations. However, on a constant currency basis, revenue increased by 5.2%, driven by strong growth in its Korean operations and balanced growth across paid content, advertising, and IP sectors.
The company announced its second-quarter results on August 10. Revenue amounted to $338.47 million (approximately 507.9 billion won), based on an average quarterly exchange rate of 1,500.74 won. Excluding the impact of currency fluctuations and non-consolidated businesses, revenue on a constant currency basis was $366.4 million, reflecting a 5.2% increase year-over-year.
By business segment, paid content revenue was $263.9 million, a 4.0% decrease from the previous year. However, on a constant currency basis, it grew by 4.3% to $286.7 million, supported by product improvements such as AI recommendations and customer relationship management (CRM) systems in Korea, which contributed to double-digit growth.
Advertising revenue reached $47.1 million, a 4.2% increase compared to the same period last year. On a constant currency basis, it grew by 11.5% to $50.4 million, driven by growth in Korea and other regions (excluding Japan).
IP business revenue was $27.4 million, down 2.6% year-over-year, but on a constant currency basis, it increased by 4.2% to $29.3 million, fueled by strong performance in Japan and other regions.
Regionally, growth in Korea was particularly notable, with revenue on a constant currency basis increasing by 20.0% year-over-year, driving the global platform business.
In Japan, the company is investing in three key areas to recover growth: expanding local original content, enhancing user engagement throughout the user acquisition process, and diversifying user acquisition channels through local partnerships. The first webtoon from 'Studio White,' a collaboration with Redice Studio and Kadokawa, titled 'Record of Lodoss War' spin-off, has been launched, and 'Line Manga' gift cards are now available at approximately 15,000 Lawson convenience stores across Japan.
In other regions, the company is strengthening its growth foundation through fandom expansion, partnership enhancement, and increasing its presence in Gen Z pop culture. A marketing campaign for the webtoon 'For Grand' has been launched, and a webtoon in collaboration with Duolingo and Paramount has been released. At San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC), three original Marvel webtoon series, 'X-Men Korea,' 'Tony's Girl,' and 'Deadpool,' have been confirmed.
Webtoon Entertainment has strengthened the virtuous cycle structure of the webtoon ecosystem on both on-platform and off-platform fronts in the second quarter. The core of the on-platform business is content development for discovering original IP, which serves as the driving force for the off-platform IP business. The strategy involves continuously producing successful works with a solid fanbase on the platform and expanding the IP business externally based on this foundation.
Kim Jun-gu, CEO of Webtoon Entertainment, stated, "In this quarter, we made progress on two strategic priorities to further strengthen the webtoon ecosystem's flywheel. Innovations such as the AI story chat 'Bias' and 'automatic translation' are driving deeper user engagement on the platform." He added, "We are continuously experimenting with AI-based initiatives like short animations while enhancing our IP strategy to secure more long-term value generated by the ecosystem through direct investments in IP."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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