Pay per user increased by 8.8%
Talk to caricature/webtoon characters
Paid AI services are also popular.
Naver Webtoon’s AI-based cartoon recommendation service ‘It’s right for you!’ Applied cartoon sorting screen. Related works are shown first according to the user’s history of enjoying horror and everyday life.
As the domestic webtoon market has matured and growth has almost stopped, Naver Webtoon is pursuing a strategy to open real customers’ wallets with a customized cartoon recommendation service using artificial intelligence (AI). In addition, they are putting their lives on the line to maximize profit by continuously introducing paid AI services using webtoon IP (intellectual property rights), such as chatting with webtoon characters.
According to Naver Webtoon on the 17th, the average monthly payment per paid user (ARPPU) of Naver Webtoon in Korea from July to September was $8.25, an increase of 8.8% compared to $7.58 in the same period last year.
As the number of monthly paid users (MPU) decreased by 7.1% from 4.2 million to 3.9 million in the same period, and sales of paid content decreased by 5.5%, the decrease in sales was partially offset by the pre – enhancement technique. individual user payments.
Paid users are believed to have spent more money on webtoons thanks to the AI cartoon recommendation service ‘Just Knows!’ which was introduced by Naver Webtoon last June. It is a service that sorts comics according to the order in which they are likely to be liked based on the user’s previous viewing history. The feature is that works seen every week are placed at the top, and that new comics that suit the user’s tastes are placed in an appropriate ratio among the works that the person -users see regularly.
For readers who like ‘Return of the Volcano’, works similar to martial arts are shown, and if ‘life stories’ are their taste, there are daily webs on the show at the top of the comics sorting order.
Currently, Naver Webtoon has 699 great works being officially serialized. Basically, webtoons are arranged in order of popularity and update, but since there are so many of them, most users are stuck looking only at the works. they have already seen rather than looking for new webtoons.
Naver Webtoon explains that this phenomenon is being gradually resolved after the service is introduced. In fact, in the third quarter of this year, the number of jobs watched by Korean users each week increased by 3% compared to the same period last year. Users who continued to view only the jobs they were looking at are now starting to view new jobs suggested by AI as well.
The company explains that the fact that it recorded the highest monthly paid users (MPU) ever in Japan in the third quarter and achieved the highest sales ever, up 25% compared to the same period last year, mainly due to the introduction of AI recommendation Service vendor like Korea.
news/cms/202411/17/news-g.v1.20241117.3434023ca3e746febec1a374462b97a0_R.jpg" data-width="2075" data-height="691" /> enlarge picture In addition to its own services, Naver Webtoon also includes paid services related to webtoons that use AI.
In June this year, we partnered with Hyperclova Character Chat is so popular that the number of users connected to the service has exceeded 1.35 million, and the number of messages which has been exchanged between users and AI has reached 25 million.
The reason why Naver Webtoon always introduces AI-based services is to find progress in the Korean webtoon market, which is actually experiencing negative growth. According to the Korea Creative Content Agency’s 2023 survey of comics and webtoon users, the proportion of respondents who said they ‘watched webtoons more than once a week’ dropped by 6.2 percentage points from 69.0% in 2022 to 62.8% in 2023.
In particular, the amount spent on webtoons seemed to have decreased. In 2022, the proportion of payers ‘less than 5,000 to 10,000 won’ peaked at 25.3%, but in 2023, the proportion of payers ‘less than 1,000 to 3,000’ first at 23%.
In a situation where market expansion has become difficult, a strategy is being implemented to increase the profit of individual customers through a cartoon recommendation service using AI and various paid services linked to webtoon IP.
An official from Naver Webtoon said, “Based on our numerous intellectual property (IP) rights and our own AI research group, we have a clear strength in the field of combining AI and webtoon IP,” adding, “We ‘ development of new formats, such as converting webtoons into short form videos with AI “We are also considering the content creation business,” he explained.
What role do paid AI services, like chatting with webtoon characters, play in Naver Webtoon’s overall profitability and user experience?
Editor: Good morning and welcome to our show. Today we have two special guests, Sejin Song, CEO of Naver Webtoon, and Jisung Lee, a professional comics artist. Thank you both for joining us.
Guest: Good morning and thank you for having us.
Editor: To begin with, could you both give us a brief overview of Naver Webtoon’s latest customized recommendation service that uses AI and its impact on increasing user engagement and revenue?
Sejin Song: Sure, our AI-powered recommendation service called “Just Knows!” has been quite successful. We’ve seen an increase in user engagement and revenue since its introduction. The service analyzes our users’ viewing patterns and suggests webtoons based on their preferences. This has helped to broaden our users’ horizons and introduced them to new content they might have otherwise missed. The average monthly payment per paid user (ARPPU) also increased by 8.8% compared to last year, indicating that users are spending more money on our platform.
Jisung Lee: As an artist, I can say that the AI-based suggestion service has been very helpful for creators like me. It ensures that our works are reached by the right audience, which leads to better exposure and potentially more revenue. The service has also helped readers discover new webtoons they might love, which is great for the growth of the platform and the industry as a whole.
Editor: That’s interesting. Speaking of revenue, Naver Webtoon has also introduced paid AI services, such as chatting with webtoon characters. Can you tell us more about this initiative and how it has contributed to the company’s profitability?
Sejin Song: Absolutely. We recognize that readers form an emotional connection with the characters they follow, so we wanted to create a way for them to engage with those characters beyond the pages of the webtoon. Our character chatbot service, powered by AI, has been incredibly popular, with over 1.35 million users already. The number of messages sent between users and the AI-powered characters has exceeded 25 million, which shows just how much of a demand there is for this type of interactive experience. We believe this service will continue to generate revenue
