With twenty anime adaptations in development and strategic partnerships with industry powerhouses like Toei Animation and Aniplex, Webtoon Entertainment is making an aggressive play to become a major force in anime production. The digital comics platform, which has already revolutionized manga consumption through its vertical-scroll mobile format, is now leveraging its vast library of webcomics to feed the insatiable global demand for animated content. Fresh off its debut at Anime Expo, where it hosted the first U.S. appearance of Tower of God creator S.I.U., Webtoon is capitalizing on its Line Manga platform’s dominance in Japan—where it claimed the top revenue spot across all apps in Q1 2025—to bridge the gap between webcomics and anime.
“Anime is more popular than ever,” says Yongsoo Kim, Webtoon’s chief strategy officer, highlighting the natural synergy between anime, manga, and webcomic fandoms. The company’s recent successes—including Viral Hit, True Beauty, and the upcoming second season of Tower of God—demonstrate the viability of its adaptation strategy. High-profile projects like Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (with Aniplex and Crunchyroll) and Gosu (with Toei Animation, the studio behind Dragon Ball and One Piece) signal Webtoon’s ambition to compete alongside legacy franchises rather than against them. “We’re adding to this landscape, bringing in fresh, new content to build fandoms alongside established IP,” Kim explains.
The selection process for adaptations is data-driven, with fan engagement serving as the ultimate litmus test. Teenage Mercenary, for instance, ranked as Line Manga’s No. 1 title in both 2023 and 2024 before securing an anime greenlight. “Popularity, great storytelling, and what fans love are always going to be important parts of how we decide which projects to adapt,” Kim notes. This approach has already yielded cross-media wins, including Netflix’s Sweet Home and The 8 Show, proving Webtoon’s ability to spin its IP into live-action and gaming formats.
Webtoon’s mobile-native vertical scroll format, originally designed for smartphone readability, has unexpectedly become an asset in animation development. “Our platform makes stories from all over the world more accessible than ever, and our vertical scroll format opens up new and unique visual storytelling opportunities,” Kim says. This innovation resonates with Gen Z audiences, who are increasingly consuming anime through platforms like TikTok and Fortnite—far removed from the niche fandom of two decades ago.
Breaking into Japan’s manga market required careful cultural navigation. Line Manga’s success—commanding over 50% of Japan’s webcomic market share—validates Webtoon’s strategy of localizing content while preserving its essence. “We have to prove ourselves in every market,” says Sinbae Kim, chief growth officer of Line Digital Frontier. The company’s partnership with Studio No. 9 Inc. has produced hits like Savior of Divine Blood, while digital reformats of classics like Fullmetal Alchemist have attracted millions of views. “When reformatting stories to the vertical scroll format, we take great care to ensure the story flows naturally,” Sinbae Kim explains.
Beyond anime, Webtoon is exploring ways to evolve the webcomic format itself, experimenting with visual effects, sound, and AI-driven personalization to create more immersive experiences. “We believe webcomics could be enhanced into something even more dynamic,” Yongsoo Kim suggests. With 26 million creators publishing 124,000 new episodes daily, the platform boasts an unprecedented pipeline of fresh IP—a critical advantage as studios scramble for original content.
As the anime market barrels toward a projected $16 billion valuation by 2030, Webtoon’s dual role as content incubator and distributor positions it at the center of the industry’s next evolution. “As webcomics become a growing source of IP for anime, more fans will look to Webtoon to see what inspires the next hit,” Kim says. In an era where streaming platforms are hungry for new stories, Webtoon’s vast, ever-expanding library may well be the anime industry’s most valuable untapped resource.
The Pop Blog general news and updates, mostly from press releases and conferences.