France's top webtoon platform Naver Webtoon, participating in its third straight Amazing Festival, runs its booth at the global content festival in Paris from July 11-14, 2024. (Naver Webtoon)

By Yoo Yeon Gyeong

Domestic webtoons have broken KRW 2 trillion in annual revenue for the first time, with sales growing for six straight years thanks to stronger demand for the medium both at home and abroad.

A 2024 survey on the webtoon sector released on Jan. 2 by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Content Promotion Agency said the sector raked in turnover in 2023 of KRW 2.19 trillion, up 19.7% from 2022.

Japan was the largest market with 40.3%, followed by North America (19.7%), the Greater China region of China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan (15.6%), Southeast Asia (12.3%) and Europe (8.2%).

The ministry also said it will introduce this year a universal content identifier (UCI) system for online content including webtoons and web novels.

The move was in response to industry analyses urging the quick standardization of such a UCI system to ensure transparency in royalty payments and prevention of illegal distribution.

The ministry said, "This year will be the first for the UCI system for webtoons and web novels, so we will continuously improve the system through a close cooperative structure with creators and industry figures in both genres."

dusrud21@korea.kr