"Traffic Surged Eightfold After Newtoki Shut Down": WEBTOON Demonstrates the Effectiveness of Blocking Illegal Distribution [IT Item of the Day]

[Financial News] Following the shutdown of major domestic piracy webtoon site Newtoki, readers who had used illegal channels returned to official services, driving webtoon purchase inflows up by as much as 7.9 times. The crackdown on illegal distribution led not only to users returning but also to actual sales growth, demonstrating its effectiveness in protecting creators' earnings.
WEBTOON released a report on the performance of its own anti-piracy distribution-blocking system, Toon Radar, on the 30th.
WEBTOON analyzed purchase data from January through August this year to determine how user behavior changed before and after Newtoki was shut down in April. It examined changes in user inflows, retention and revenue by categorizing series according to how quickly they had been illegally leaked immediately before the shutdown: on the day of release, after at least one day, or not leaked.
The analysis found that new purchase inflows for series whose latest episodes had been illegally leaked on the day of release until just before Newtoki's shutdown increased 7.9-fold in the week of the shutdown, compared with the average for the preceding three weeks. Of these users, 96% had previously used the relevant series, leading WEBTOON to conclude that readers who had left for illegal channels returned to the official service.
Many of the returning users remained on the official service and continued making payments. Revenue from series leaked illegally on the day of release increased by 29.7% during the three weeks immediately after Newtoki's shutdown, then rose another 11.9% over the following three weeks.
WEBTOON attributed these results to the government's strengthened efforts to block illegal sites and Toon Radar's ability to block the supply of pirated content. According to the Korea Copyright Protection Agency (KCOPA), the average daily number of visits to the three illegal sites with the highest traffic fell by approximately 64%, from more than 4.71 million to 1.71 million, following the government's emergency blocking measures on May 11.
Toon Radar's defense rate against the illegal distribution of the latest paid episodes currently stands at 99.8%. WEBTOON explained that the system also delays the appearance of the latest episodes on illegal sites by three to five episodes compared with the official service, reducing the value of pirated content.
WEBTOON is also stepping up its response to overseas piracy sites. In May, it worked with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) to shut down three global illegal sites based in Vietnam. In August, it cooperated with the International Criminal Police Organization and local law enforcement agencies in North Africa to shut down three English-language illegal sites with 130 million annual visits and assist in the arrest of their operators.
Kim Gyu-nam, a vice president at WEBTOON, said, "Because this represents the protection of creators' rights and increased earnings, it is highly significant for the webtoon ecosystem."
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[email protected] Choi Hye-rim Reporter