#Kakao Webtoon

[charlotte-louister]

[aliennazero]

Fanart - Kill the Villainess; TW GORE?

Eris Miserian & Helena Anterblum, as written in their fate, Eris must be the one who kill Helena.

[geminidaydreamer]

This would be an epic scene if they ever adapt Season 3 of the webtoon. Mun ends up where the spirits go when they cross over and leave Yung. Problem is you can only be there when you're dead and Mun isn't.

[bukubook]

[jamilatulwardiah]

[tsukumizu]

300+ piracy sites have been nuked

[nikkibvb]

Me: *sick of waiting for slow legal and questionable translations for manhwa*

Also me: *begins rummaging through naver and kakao for the korean raws even though I can't read korean*

[skriblee-ksk]

every day i think of the first nasir appearance and cry because she’s so cool and still hasn’t gotten an official en appearance (tapas get to WORK)

[asteriass]

Small details I noticed in chapter 116 of “Your Majesty, Please Spare Me This Time”

1- Rupert is still keeping that dried leaf Lali gifted him as a makeshift “bookmark”, and is actually using it as a bookmark for his books 😭❤️

2- The bouquet Lehan gave Lali this chapter had the SAME EXACT flowers/arrangement as the bouquet Lali had given him back in S1. Lali was very specific to the flower shop lady about getting daffodils (cuz he liked them), the blue flowers not only complimented the yellow but also presumably related to his entry at the military academy (as the military academy’s official color is blue), and she was also very specifically wanted a dark brown ribbon for it (the color of Lehan’s hair) So whether or not if he was trying to be genuine by giving her the same bouquet type, in his twisted sense he did not only ended up gifting her his own fave flowers, rather than flowers that she likes (Which we know are wild flowers like daisies since the story very specifically mentions it on multiple occasions. And he knows those are her fave too). But he also ended up giving something that used to be a symbol of their “family relationship” (cuz in her own words, she had bought the bouquet as a gift for her “calm, sweet, and kind […] younger brother”)

3- We know that Rupert has not been taking proper care of himself like maintaining a proper sleep schedule, maintaining a proper meal schedule, etc. Similarly, it seems he also stopped cutting/maintaining his hair in the months following Lali’s leave, as his hair seems to have been grown longer than how it was just a week to prior to her leaving

[brendering]

Go read the full post and additional commentary for more info about WT taking advantage of artists. I'd like to talk about another facet I don't see discussed as much in regards to Webtoon, which is monopolizing the market.

When Webtooons deleted the Patreon button and replaced it with Super Likes (their own tip option, which WT conveniently takes a substantial cut from), I saw a lot of people saying 'just move to Tapas'.

Except Tapas is also owned by Webtoons, or more specifically by Kakao Entertainment.

Tapas was originally a California-based startup. Once it got big, it added a "Right of First Refusal" to its TOS (basically meaning if you want to sell your own comic, you have to give Tapas the first pass at it, which is horrible for artists and predatory considering most people were posting their comics to Tapas for free, which Tapas was already profiting off of). With Webtoons on the rise, Kakao Entertainment bought out Tapas. If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em!

This comes as little surprise, since Kakao Entertainment is basically No-Face when it comes to gobbling up competitors.

In the past few years Kakao Entertainment has "merged" (aka devoured) Cre.ker Entertainment, Plan A Entertainment, Melon Company, Kakao M Corp, Kakao TV, etc. I'm not an expert but it seems like they not only do tons of legal mergers (which suck), but they also do sneakier drawn-out mergers where they buy companies and rename them to a Kakao brand, then hold onto them long enough to merge them since they own both.

As if that's not bad enough, Kakao Entertainment is itself owned by a multi-trillion dollar megaconglomerate called Naver Corp, which also owns LINE Manga, Wattpad, Yahoo Japan, and even Poshmark. Kakao Entertainment or their daddy Naver Corp own pretty much every online comic host you can think of, and they're currently going after online writing/serialized novel sites. It looks like they're aiming to own pretty much any serialized art or writing of any kind on the web.

Live footage of Naver Corp execs:

A single entity trying to buy up literally all the competitors in a given market is already troubling enough (and results in artists being treated like dirt), but even more disturbing is the fact that Naver Corp owns its own AI company. I don't think I need to explain why this is Not Good.

I know this seems very doom and gloom, but all of this is to say: please support artists on their own websites/Patreons if you're able (even just as a free subscriber). Please support independent comic collectives and hosts when you can. And when you join a new site, don't forget to find out who its daddy is, because these megacorps are out here like

I'm going to have to talk about Webtoons(company) at one point, and its... impact on the webcomic sphere too. Trying to find the most eloquent way to say that these companies aren't your friends, and that I am seeing more and more creators getting chewed up and spit out when these places are done with them. I'm legit worried for how The Content Creator model is going to hurt so many more people, who have been led to believe that this is the only way to get their work out there.

[genericpuff]

Tbh at this point you should just make your own webcomic app/website because it would probably be 100 times better than whatever going on with webtoon right now.

hahaha it wouldn't tho, sorry 💀

Here's the fundamental issue with webcomic platforms that a lot of people just don't realize (and why they're so difficult to run successfully):

Storage costs are incredibly expensive, it's why so many sites have limitations on file sizes / page sizes / etc. because all of those images and site info have to be stored somewhere, which costs $$$.

Maintenance costs are expensive and get more so as you grow, you need people who are capable of fixing bugs ASAP and managing the servers and site itself

Financially speaking, webcomics are in a state of high supply, low demand. Loads of artists are willing to create their passion projects, but getting people to read them and pay for them is a whole other issue. Demand is high in the general sense that once people get attached to a webtoon they'll demand more, but many people aren't actually willing to go looking for new stuff to read and depend more on what sites feed them (and what they already like). There are a lot of comics to go around and thus a lot of competition with a limited audience of people willing to actually pay for them.

Trying to build a new platform from the ground up is incredibly difficult and a majority of sites fail within their first year. Not only do you have to convince artists to take a chance on your platform, you have to convince readers to come. Readers won't come if there isn't work on the platform to read, but artists won't come if they don't think the site will be worth it due to low traffic numbers. This is why the artists with large followings who are willing to take chances on the smaller sites are crucial, but that's only if you can convince them to use the site in favor of (or alongside) whatever platform they're using already where the majority of their audience lies. For many creators it's just not worth the time, energy, or risk.

Even if you find short-term success, in the long-term there are always going to be profit margins to maintain. The more users you pull in, the more storage is used by incoming artists, the more you have to spend on storage and server maintenance costs, and that means either taking the risk at crowdfunding (ex. ComicFury) or having to resort to outsider investments (ex. Tapas). Look at SmackJeeves, it used to be a titan in the independent webcomic hosting community, until it folded over to a buyout by NHN and then was pretty much immediately shuttered due to NHN basically turning it into a manwha scanlation site and driving away its entire userbase. And if you don't get bought out and try your hand at crowdfunding, you may just wind up living on a lifeline that could cut out at any moment, like what happened to Inkblazers (fun fact, the death of Inkblazers was what kicked off the cultural shift in Tapas around 2015-16 when all of IB's users migrated over and brought their work with them which was more aimed towards the BL and romancee drama community, rather than the comedy / gag-a-day culture that Tapas had made itself known for... now you deadass can't tell Tapas apart from a lot of scanlation sites because it got bought out by Kakao and kept putting all of its eggs into the isekai/romance drama basket.)

Right now the mindset in which artists and readers are operating is that they're trying way, way too hard to find a "one size fits all" site. Readers want a place where they can find all their favorite webtoons without much effort, artists wants a place where they can post to an audience of thousands, and both sides want a community that will feel tight-knit. But the reality is that you can't really have all three of those things, not on one site. Something always winds up having to be sacrificed - if a site grows big enough, it'll have to start seeking more funding while also cutting costs which will result in features becoming paywall'd, intrusive ads, creators losing their freedom, and/or outsider support which often results in the platform losing its core identity and alienating its tight-knit community.

If I had to describe what I'm talking about in a "pick one" graphic, it would look something like this:

(*note: this is mostly based on my own observations from using all of these sites at some point or another, they're not necessarily entirely accurate to the statistical performance of each site, I can only glean so much from experience and traffic trackers LMAO that said I did ask some comic pals for input and they were very helpful in helping me adjust it with their own takes <3).

The homogenization of the Internet has really whipped people into submission for the "big sites" that offer "everything", but that's never been the Internet, it relies on being multi-faceted and offering different spaces for different purposes. And we're seeing that ideology falter through the enshittification of sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. where users are at odds with the platforms because the platforms are gutting features in an attempt to satisfy shareholders whom without the platforms would not exist. Like, most of us aren't paying money to use social media sites / comic platform sites, so where else are they gonna make the necessary funds to keep these sites running? Selling ad space and locking features behind paywalls.

And this is especially true for a lot of budding sites that don't have the audience to support them via crowdfunding but also don't have the leverage to ask for investments - so unless they get really REALLY lucky in EITHER of those departments, they're gonna be operating at a loss, and even once they do achieve either of those things there are gonna be issues in the site's longevity, whether it be dying from lack of growing crowdfunding support or dying from shareholder meddling.

So what can we do?

We can learn how to take our independence back. We don't have to stop using these big platforms altogether as they do have things to offer in their own way, particularly their large audience sizes and dipping into other demographics that might not be reachable from certain sites - but we gotta learn that no single site is going to satisfy every wish we have and we have to be willing to learn the skills necessary to running our own spaces again. Pick up HTML/CSS, get to know other people who know HTML/CSS if you can't grasp it (it's me, I can't grasp it LOL), be willing to take a chance on those "smaller sites" and don't write them off entirely as spaces that can be beneficial to you just because they don't have large numbers or because they don't offer rewards programs. And if you have a really polished piece of work in your hands, look into agencies and publishing houses that specialize in indie comics / graphic novels, don't settle for the first Originals contract that gets sent your way.

For the last decade corporations have been convincing us that our worth is tied to the eyes we can bring to them. Instead of serving ourselves, we've begun serving the big guys, insisting that it has to be worth something eventually and that it'll "payoff" simply by the virtue of gambler's fallacy. Ask yourself what site is right for you and your work rather than asking yourself if your work is good enough for them. Most of us are broke trying to make it work on these sites anyways, may as well be broke and fulfilled by posting in places that actually suit us and our work if we can. Don't define your success by what sites like Webtoons are enforcing - that definition only benefits them, not you.

[bukubook]

[kstarvibes]

SM And Kakao To Co-Produce NCT Webtoon And RIIZE Web Novel

SM and Kakao are introducing more K-pop IP (Intellectual Property) for fans to enjoy! On August 17, Kakao Entertainment announced that they will launch the omnibus webtoon “NCT: Dream Contact” and the web novel “Rise & Realize” in collaboration with SM Entertainment. The omnibus-style webtoon “NCT: Dream Contact” consists of a total of five episodes, containing the concept of NCT’s universe in…

[jamilatulwardiah]

[engshoujosei]

Who Made Me a Princess  (Manhwa)

Volume 1 releases

Licensed by Tapas, Tappytoon, and Seven Seas

The hit full-color fantasy webtoon/manhwa (comic)--in English print for the first time! When a modern woman is reincarnated as the doomed princess in a romance novel, she reaches out to grab a new future with both baby fists! The story of Athanasia, forsaken princess of the Obelian Empire, ends with her execution at the hands of her own father--or does it? Her tragic tale is the plot of the novel The Lovely Princess. But now, a modern woman who read the book has just woken up as baby Athanasia herself, filled with her own memories and knowledge of the story she's stuck in! Determined to survive her doomed fate, infant Athanasia embarks on this new life with a plan: avoid attention and hoard valuables to fund her escape. When her plan goes awry, she suddenly needs to charm her way into the good graces of her father, the beautiful tyrant emperor, so he doesn't kill her again!   

Related Series 

Who Made Me a Princess (Novel) (Adapted From, not licensed) Harley Takes the House (Spin-Off, licensed digitally by Tapas) 

Status in Country of Origin

125 Chapters (Complete) 9 Volumes (Ongoing) S1: 46 Chapters (1~46) S2: 35 Chapters (47~81) S3: 44 Chapters (82~125) Side Stories: TBA

Tags:

Age Progression

Amnesia

Appearance Different from Actual Age

Based on a Novel

Beautiful Artwork

Bodyguard/s

Child Protagonist

Childhood Friend/s

Concubine/s

Curse/s

Dead Parent/s

European Ambience

Father and Daughter

Full Color

Illegitimate Child/ren

Important Non-Romantic Relationship/s

Isekai

Love Triangle/s

Loyal Servant

Magic

Massacre

Memories of Past Life

Memory Erase

Mental Regression

Nobility

Otome Isekai

Reincarnated in a Book World

Slow Romance

Tragic Past

Tsundere Male Lead

[caesarinsalata]

No problem! I'm always looking for more FMA content to snort up my nose 🤣

'OOK AT 'IM