Korean Webtoons Find a Place in the U.S.—and on Wall Street
From Mobile Scrolls to U.S. Screens
Ten years ago, Korean webtoons were little more than a curiosity for American readers, discovered through fan translations and shared links. Now they are popping up everywhere-from Disney+ dramas like Moving to print editions on U.S. bookshelves. The format, built for scrolling on phones, has become familiar to Gen Z readers who already spend much of their day swiping on apps.
Fans often describe the difference in simple terms: "It just feels made for my phone," one Los Angeles reader told a forum. Unlike traditional comics bound in glossy covers, episodes arrive weekly and can stretch for hundreds of chapters. That rhythm makes webtoons feel more like TV series than books, keeping readers hooked for months, sometimes years.
Disney Steps In
That cultural pull is now drawing big corporate players. Disney recently struck a deal with Webtoon Entertainment, the U.S. arm of Naver Webtoon, to co-develop a digital comics service. The partnership goes further than just distribution: Disney is putting money into Webtoon itself and plans to add Marvel and Star Wars titles to the same vertical-scroll platform that powers Korean hits.
For Disney, this is partly about survival. Streaming giants are running out of original material, and webtoons supply a near-endless stream of adaptable stories. Marvel took decades to build its cinematic universe; webtoons, by contrast, deliver new content every week, with feedback loops that keep creators and fans in constant dialogue. That pace is something Hollywood has never had.
Market Reaction
Wall Street noticed quickly. After the announcement, Webtoon's shares surged more than 30 percent in a day. Investors framed the move as more than a licensing deal; to them, it looked like a vote of confidence that webtoons could grow into a global pipeline for films, shows, even gaming.
Skeptics, though, point to unanswered questions. How sustainable is the ad-supported model? Will American readers accept micro-payments and subscriptions the way Korean fans do? And what happens when questions of intellectual property-creator rights, revenue splits, global licensing-get complicated? These issues make webtoons look less like a guaranteed growth story and more like a bold, but risky, bet.
Creators and Culture
For Korean artists, the upside is visibility on a scale they couldn't have imagined. A story that once reached readers in Seoul might now get a live-action series watched in Chicago. But visibility also brings pressure: jokes or cultural references that land well at home may puzzle foreign viewers, and content guidelines differ by country. Some creators see this as an opportunity; others worry about losing the very local flavor that made webtoons unique.
Still, readers around the world are leaning in. On Reddit threads, U.S. fans debate Korean slang; on TikTok, panels from webtoons are re-cut into memes; and on YouTube, reaction channels have sprung up to explain new episodes. The cultural exchange is messy, imperfect-and it is working.
Where Culture Meets Capital
The bigger picture is clear enough. Webtoons are no longer just entertainment; they are assets, IP portfolios, and now publicly traded stock. Disney's investment shows that major studios believe in the format's future, while the market reaction proves investors see webtoons as more than a fad.
And yet, for most readers, none of that matters. They keep scrolling because the stories feel fresh, because the cliffhangers pull them back, because the characters remind them of themselves. That combination-commerce and creativity, Wall Street and web forums-is why Korean webtoons have become one of the most intriguing cultural forces of 2025.
