K Culture WireKorean pop culture, in numbers

Korea’s webtoon businesses, counted

Name: Korea’s webtoon businesses, counted
Creator: K Culture Wire

Every figure here comes from one survey of 396 webtoon businesses in 2024. Revenue is webtoon-related revenue per business. Sample size is shown on every row.

The average is not the industry

Average revenue₩8.06bnacross all 396 businesses

Earning under ₩1bn76.4%three-quarters of the industry sits below the average’s own bracket

A small group at the top sets that mean. The tables below show where it comes from. Read the full story →

By type of business

Segment	Businesses	Avg revenue	Under ₩1bn	₩10bn+	75%+ from webtoons
Platforms	28	₩94.47bn	51.8%	39.3%	49.2%
Content providers	368	₩1.49bn	78.3%	5.3%	60.3%
All businesses	396	₩8.06bn	76.4%	7.7%	59.5%

Platforms distribute; content providers make the work. They are not competing on the same field — a distribution business serves the whole market at once and carries the capital to do it, while a production studio is small by nature. This is a difference in kind, not in quality.

By main line of business

Segment	Businesses	Avg revenue	Under ₩1bn	₩10bn+	75%+ from webtoons
Webtoon service provision	31	₩85.33bn	56.5%	35.5%	54.1%
Distribution and brokerage	65	₩1.65bn	70.2%	5.8%	53.7%
Planning and production	247	₩1.41bn	81.1%	5.0%	61.4%
Publishing	28	₩1.52bn	74.3%	4.3%	63.2%
Other	24	₩2bn	73.5%	10.0%	58.5%
All businesses	396	₩8.06bn	76.4%	7.7%	59.5%

By headcount

Segment	Businesses	Avg revenue	Under ₩1bn	₩10bn+	75%+ from webtoons
Under 10 staff	214	₩0.33bn	92.8%	0.5%	67.5%
10–49 staff	129	₩1.32bn	68.9%	3.9%	55.8%
50+ staff	53	₩56.13bn	28.3%	46.7%	36.1%
All businesses	396	₩8.06bn	76.4%	7.7%	59.5%

The last column is the one to read here. The smallest firms are the most dependent on webtoons for their income and the least able to absorb a bad year. Diversification and cushion sit in the same companies.

By revenue band

Segment	Businesses	Avg revenue	Under ₩1bn	₩10bn+	75%+ from webtoons
Revenue under ₩1bn	269	₩0.15bn	100.0%	0.0%	65.5%
Revenue ₩1–10bn	89	₩1.71bn	36.2%	0.0%	49.1%
Revenue ₩10bn+	38	₩79.47bn	2.9%	81.3%	41.3%
All businesses	396	₩8.06bn	76.4%	7.7%	59.5%

What we wrote from this data

Korea's webtoon industry averages ₩8.1bn a business. Three-quarters of it earns under ₩1bn.
396 webtoon businesses were surveyed in 2024. The 28 platforms average ₩94.5bn each; the 368 content providers average ₩1.5bn. The average describes almost nobody, and the studios that draw the comics sit at the bottom of it.
6 August 2026

Where these numbers come from

국가데이터처 KOSIS, 한국콘텐츠진흥원 「웹툰산업실태조사」 — Korea Creative Content Agency, 웹툰산업실태조사 (Webtoon Industry Survey), reference year 2024, via KOSIS tables DT_467002_A005 and DT_467002_A004.
Sample sizes are small in places. Publishing is 28 businesses and Other is 24. A percentage on a base that size moves a lot for one respondent, so the count is printed on every row and should be read with the percentage, never without it.
One year only. KOSIS publishes this survey for 2024 and no earlier year in this form, so nothing here says the industry is growing or shrinking.
This surveys businesses, not creators. A studio’s revenue is not a cartoonist’s income, and the survey does not ask about the second. No figure here describes what an artist earns.
No company is named. The survey reports 28 platforms as a group and does not identify them, so neither do we.

출처: 국가데이터처 KOSIS, 한국콘텐츠진흥원 「웹툰산업실태조사」, 기준 2024년.

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