The global webtoon industry made $4.7 billion in 2021 and is projected to make $60.1 billion by 2030, according to Spherical Insights & Consulting. But Kim Junkoo, CEO and founder of Webtoon Entertainment - a unit of Naver which originated the format in 2004 - says rivals will struggle to build a viable business. Webtoon Entertainment and its subsidiary have run amateur artists' debut programmes for years, generating 1.6 million titles from 900,000 creators as of January. Naver said in recent earnings calls that it expected to list the Webtoon business in the United States next year, but did not elaborate on size, timing or venue. Webtoon Entertainment reported a 13 billion won operating loss in the April-June quarter, smaller than the 21.4 billion won loss in the first quarter.

---

Persons: Kim Junkoo, Kim, we've, Apple, Naver, 1,330.1200, Joyce Lee, Sam Holmes Organizations: WEBTOON, REUTERS, Consulting, Amazon Japan, Apple, Webtoon Entertainment, Entertainment, Korea Creative Content Agency, Thomson Locations: Paris, France, SEOUL, Korean, Silicon, Japan, Korea, United, United States