If you haven’t heard of webtoons, you will soon | Mint

IT TAKES ONLY a few minutes and a few swipes. After reading the first episode of “Solo Levelling”, a webtoon (ie, digital comic), you can be confident of where the story is heading: Sung Jinwoo will not remain the lowliest, most pathetic monster-hunter of all time. He will learn to vanquish fearsome beasts. He will earn his peers’ respect. He will make enough to pay for his mother’s medical care.

Readers do not seem to care that “Solo Levelling” offers a predictable hero’s journey. The webtoon—with its dynamic fight scenes and meticulously rendered landscapes—has become an internet sensation, accruing more than 14bn views since its release in 2018. Last year it was adapted into an animated series (pictured) which rocketed to the top of the charts on Crunchyroll, a streaming platform. (A second season was released earlier this year.) A mobile game based on the story, also released in 2024, has made $150m. That is more than Oscar-winning films such as “Conclave” have taken at the global box office.

Much like “The Masked Singer”, a reality TV show, webtoons originated in South Korea and have gone global. What distinguishes webtoons from other comics is that they are designed for a small screen. (You read one by scrolling down, one frame at a time, rather than scanning multiple frames across a page or spread.) The format dates back to the early 2000s, but has exploded in popularity of late.

In 2024 the webtoons market was worth $9bn; it is projected to reach nearly $100bn by 2033, according to IMARC, a consultancy. That figure is higher than the projected market size of manga, Japan’s celebrated comic books. Indeed, even Japanese readers are ditching their homegrown comics for the digital alternative. The highest-grossing app in Japan in the first quarter of this year was Line Manga, a confusingly named webtoon app.

The craze marries two phenomena: the popularity of comics as a genre and people’s dependence on their smartphones for diversion. Webtoon, one platform, releases more than 120,000 new episodes every day, meaning even the most phone-addicted youngsters can find something to enjoy when they pick up a device.

Webtoons are written to be enjoyed in short bursts—an episode can take as little as five minutes to read—which suits anyone with a short attention span. They are a product of Korean “snack culture”, which promotes the consumption of media in morsels of 15 minutes or less, says Dal Yong Jin of Simon Fraser University. Readers say that the single-panel format makes for an “immersive” reading experience when compared with a traditional comic book, as your eye is not being prematurely drawn to other frames on the page.

Another reason for webtoons’ popularity is their paciness. Readers do not have to worry about a slow-burning plot. Characters generally face one moment of crisis after another: no sooner has Jinwoo survived one monster raid than he is off on the next. And, much as soap operas use cliffhangers to encourage viewers to tune in the next week, webtoon episodes rely on suspense to prod readers to tap through to the next instalment.

This holds true for all genres, not just action and fantasy. Romance is among the most popular webtoon categories. Users have been seduced by such titles as “I’ve Fallen For The Empire’s Greatest Villainess”, a smouldering yarn about a noble bachelor who is forced to marry. Despite its obvious tropes, it has a 9.5-star rating and almost 3.5m views on Webtoon.

Even if many webtoons do not offer original conceits, lots offer sumptuous imagery. Artists from across the world upload their work directly to platforms, meaning no one has to hew to a particular aesthetic style. Some webtoons evoke brooding American comics, but others are more experimental. “Lore Olympus”, a retelling of the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone, uses vivid colours and an airbrush effect. It has had 1.4bn views.

Webtoons’ large, global followings have made them a valuable source of intellectual property. Since 2020 more than ten stories have been adapted into films and television shows. “Sweet Home” and “Itaewon Class” are available to stream on Netflix, as is “Heartstopper”, a popular LGBT romance based on Alice Oseman’s webtoon of the same name.

The truncated nature of webtoon episodes does not make them easy source material, however, for there is often not enough story to fill a script. And relentless twists make for hammy, monotonous viewing; people expect to see introspection as well as action. Asa Suehira, head of content at Crunchyroll, says that the producers of the “Solo Levelling” adaptation had to add material about the characters’ psychology to make the story work as tv.

The short supply

Nevertheless, more adaptations are on the way. Hollywood is snapping up the rights to hit webtoons; 20 shows are in development. LuckyChap, one of the production companies behind “Barbie”, the biggest movie of 2023, is working on a live-action film of “Stagtown”, a webtoon about a town with a dark secret. “Lore Olympus” is being turned into an animated series by the Jim Henson Company (best known for “The Muppets”). Skybound, which made “The Walking Dead”, a zombie franchise, has picked up “Freaking Romance”, a supernatural love story. Having conquered smartphones, webtoons are coming soon to another screen near you.