The announcement included market research describing a committed, engaged audience that’s regularly visiting the platforms. Among the details:
- 97% of users agree WEBTOON is entertaining and fun, a better score than TikTok, Netflix, and Roblox.
- 86% of users respond that WEBTOON makes them feel good
- 77% of users agree that WEBTOON has contain unavailable elsewhere
- Users spend roughly 30 minutes a day on the platform.
Advertising is big business for the company; it generated $145.5 million in ad sales worldwide in 2023. The opportunities in North America include not only selling more ads on WEBTOON, but also monetizing web fiction platform Wattpad, which had been growing users without emphasizing revenues before the company's IPO this year (see "WEBTOON Files for IPO"). That IPO raised $$365 million at a $2.9 billion valuation, although the value has since declined to around half that due to share price declines after the company’s first quarterly report as a public company (see "WEBTOON Widens Loss").
