Naver Webtoon attends 2023 SXSW to introduce IP with strong fandoms

▲ This photo, provided by Naver Webtoon, shows chief executive Lee Shin-ok at the 2023 SXSW. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Mar. 16 (Yonhap) -- Naver Webtoon has emphasized the strength of webtoon’s intellectual property as a genre based on fandom, during the 2023 South by Southwest (SXSW), the largest content festival in North America.

Lee Shin-ok, chief executive of Naver’s North American business contents, participated in SXSW’s panel session “Animated Future: Revolution of Cartoon Brought by Webtoon Entertainment and Crunchyroll” held in Austin, Texas on Monday (local time).

South by Southwest touts itself as North America’s largest annual conglomeration of entertainment and tech firms worldwide, which takes place in mid-March in Texas. During the event, Lee spoke about Naver Webtoon’s original IP with solid fandom that is also being adapted into diverse media formats including books, movies, animated films, drama series, and games.

By putting a strong emphasis on the role of webtoon fandom during the process of adaptation, the Korean executive said, “It may take only three to five minutes for readers to read an episode of webtoon but this also means that they come to read the work every week and spend that much time every week for years. The accumulated time then makes a tight bond between each webtoon and its readers.”

He also mentioned the pros of vertical scrolling while reading a webtoon via one’s smartphone. Lee said, “It is essential to break the barriers to creation and barriers of distribution in the content business. We have broken the barrier of distribution by adapting our content to the smartphone device and also have torn down the barrier to creation by enabling our creators to freely showcase their works on our website.”

Meanwhile, Terry Lee, who manages the new business division of the American subscription-based online anime and manga library Crunchyroll, acknowledged the power of webtoon, saying, “Naver’s Webtoon Entertainment, its Los Angeles headquarters in the heart of the LA entertainment industry, is definitely one of the most prominent IP operators of this time. It owns many IPs that boast strong fandom, and we have also been actively collaborating with some of those splendid works.”

Crunchyroll has been participating in the investment and distribution of an animated version of one of Naver’s iconic works “Tower of God.” The first part of the animated version was released in 2020, and the second part is currently under production.

Naver Webtoon has recently been paying keen attention to the animation business of its IPs: The South Korean largest webtoon platform established a global animation division under its Watpad Webtoon Studio and has been co-producing the animated version of its hit webtoon “Lore Olympus.”

(This article is translated from Korean to English by Ha eun Lee)

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