The market has yet to live up to its potential
The worldwide graphic novel market was valued at $4.5 billions (USD) in 2019, of which $1.21 billions were generated in North America alone. In 2020, the latter rose to $1.28 bilions¹, a $70 million growth fuelled ENTIRELY BY DIGITAL SALES.
But in Asia and the rest of the world, a different graphic novel format, native to South Korea, has been steadily fuelling the growth of digital graphic novels revenues: webtoons².
“Webtoons are published in one long, vertical strip so that it is EASIER TO READ ON A SMARTPHONE.”
Digital Sales of Graphic Novels
South Korea has seen constant growth from its digital sales.
To grow, North American digital sales needed a year where everyone had to stay home.
Because webtoon’s are growing in popularity and delivering undeniable successes³, the biggest North American comic book publishers and distributors are now looking beyond their initial technological innovation for reading graphic novels on a smartphone, namely Guided View⁴ (introduced in 2017). Today, they are focused in bringing forth their own webtoon-like alternatives⁵.
But as industry players here and abroad battle to win their stake of this growing digital market, a truly web-native solution that could bring digital graphic novels to a worldwide audience remains nowhere to be seen.