Originating in South Korea 10 years ago, webtoons have rapidly gained popularity, replacing the previously vague term of ‘internet comics’. One of the leading publishers of webtoons, NAVER Corporation, which is also Korea’s top search portal, currently enjoys more than 6.2 million daily visitors, totalling and astonishing 29 billion hits since the launch of its online platform back in 2006.
NAVER also created its ‘Challenge Manhwa’ (Manhwa meaning comics in Korean) which allows registered users to upload their own webtoons. The most popular of these will then be featured in the NAVER webtoon section – the ultimate prize for any webtoon fan.
LINE Webtoon App
In an unprecedented move, webtoons have now expanded into the mobile and tablet application market thanks to the LINE Webtoon app which was launched in July. This free application is available for both Android and iOS via Google Play and the App store respectively.
For this app, NAVER has included a selection of 42 cartoons including 520 original webtoons – everything for free. And if that is not enough, content is updated on a daily basis – totalling to 7 – 10 webtoons a day!
The app has some really cool features such as the ability to download the webtoons for offline viewing and to automatically receive push notifications so that you will never miss one. It also includes easy Facebook, Twitter and LINE social sharing. According to JunKoo Dim, Director and Head of the LINE Webtoon Division, “In the U.S., we wanted to partner with established and up-and-coming American creators to expand our selection of titles and help them expand their fan base.” The app also offers the opportunity for established webtoons artists to expand their fanbase.
10th Dimension Boys
Today we are pleased to bring you a NAVER classic – ‘10th Dimension Boys’ by the artist Cutbu. Defined as comedy, the webtoon is published every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday on NAVER. It is slightly different from the strict webtoon definition as it is an animation. Nonetheless, it brims with absurdity, fart jokes and one-liners, all enveloped in classic Korean webtoon animation.
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