WEBTOON Unveils Growth Plan at Goldman Sachs Conference

WEBTOON used its appearance at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference 2026 to outline its growth plan, built on paid content, advertising and off-platform IP. Management struck a confident tone on long-term expansion, while also acknowledging near-term unevenness.

The company's core business comes from micropayments, but management sees more room to grow advertising, animation, gaming and other crossover IP. WEBTOON is leaning heavily on AI, auto-translation and interactive features to improve discovery, engagement and creator tools.

WEBTOON has 27 million creators, most of them non-professional, and 155 million monthly active users who spend an average of 30 to 60 minutes a day on the platform. Paid content accounts for 79% of revenue, mainly through micropayments of about $0.15 to $0.70 per episode.

David said the platform is built around a marketplace model in which creators can reach a global audience and turn a hit series into a movie, television project or game. Some franchise stars can earn more than $1 million a year on the platform and become stars off the platform through adaptations on services such as Amazon Prime, Tubi or Netflix.