Scrolling, Swiping, Selling – Study Notes on Webtoons & Data-Driven Participatory Culture

Comic-book worlds increasingly remediated into TV, games, film
- Example: $Avengers{:} Endgame$ (2019) grossed $\approx 2.8\;\text{billion\;USD}$ , highest box-office (Whitten 2019)
Offline fan events flourishing
- Tokyo Comiket → >500{,}000 visitors per edition, focus on doujinshi (fan manga)
- ±50 Dutch comic/ anime conventions (Amsterdam Comic Con, Dutch Comic Con, etc.)
Online surge: DeviantArt, SmackJeeves, Webtoon + crowdfunding via Kickstarter, Patreon → fans as investors/ co-creators
Shift from siloed “texts” toward complex socio-technical systems; active audience now performs creative & financial roles

Comic studies → textual/ medium-centric analysis
Fan studies → reception, remix, subculture focus
New media blur producer/consumer divide → emergence of “prosumer” (Toffler 1989); “produsage” (Bruns 2008)
Interdisciplinary Media Studies advocated
- Collaborative, systemic, data-aware methodology
- Move beyond broadcast metaphors → study experiences, platforms, business models

Definition of platform (van Dijck 2013; Gillespie 2018)
- Socio-technical assemblage; mediator + gatekeeper
Platformization
- Helmond 2015: rise of platform as dominant infrastructural & economic model
- Nieborg et al. 2019: penetration of platforms into all media sectors, creating “winner-take-all” two-sided markets
Data as central commodity
- Personalized ads, third-party sales, tracking
- Leads to terms: “platform economy” (Steinberg 2019), “platform capitalism” (Srnicek 2016), “surveillance capitalism” (Zuboff 2019)
Algorithmic bias & inequality
- Eubanks 2018, Noble 2018, O’Neil 2016 → tech not neutral, reproduces social disparities
Emergence of “data fans” (Zhang & Negus 2020)
- High algorithmic literacy, mobilisation of hashtags/ metrics (e.g., K-pop stans disrupting Trump rally, 2020)

Jenkins 2006: bottom-up, democratic fandom → now shifting to top-down, data-monetised model
“Digi-gratis” economy (Booth 2017)
- Fans perform free labour; platforms monetise clicks/ likes
“Regift economy” (Scott 2009) magnified
- UGC sold back via ads, pay-walls; every data point commodified
Attention economy (Misemer 2019)
- Scarcity of reader time → “cooperative competition” among artists; clicks as currency

Origin: South Korea; pioneers Daum Toon (2003), Naver Webtoon (2004)
Globalisation: 2012 Tapas partnership; 2014 LINE Webtoon English launch
Hit example: Lore Olympus (2018–) → rating $9.79$ , optioned by The Jim Henson Company
Formal traits
- Vertical infinite scroll, colour, mobile-first
- Breaks with traditional panel grid; each screen = single “panel”; device frame acts as meta-panel
- Aligns with McCloud’s “infinite canvas” concept; reader scrolling creates timing → performative reading
Comparison Print vs. Webtoon (key affordances)
- Print: page flips, horizontal navigation, multi-panel grid, private reading
- Webtoon: vertical scroll, episodic release, visible likes/comments, GIFs & music (Originals only)

Episodes typically weekly; promotes “just-in-time” fan practices
Platforms likened to “YouTube of Comics” (Serafino 2015) → quick upload, ownership retained, ad-share possible
Enables binge-reading similar to Netflix culture

Dystopian story repurposed from print to Webtoon Original
Artistic adjustments
- Re-layout: $\approx40$ panels/ week; long vertical sequences for emotional impact (e.g., protagonist drowning panic-attack)
- Quote: scrolling “beautiful for emotional moments… let everything flow” (Delbressine, int. 1 Apr 2020)
Constraints
- Weekly deadlines + panel quota impose creative limits; demand efficient background design
- Artists now “content providers” tied to engagement metrics
Multimedia potential (GIFs, music) available in Originals tier; yet uptake varies (e.g., Brothers Bond uses full audio)

Dual ecosystem: Canvas (open upload) vs. Originals (contracted)
Revenue streams
1. Ad Revenue Sharing (US views only) – tiered thresholds (Fig. 4)
2. Creator Rewards linked to Patreon; seamless integration
3. Virtual Currency “Coins”
- Fast Pass: paywall for $\le3$ weeks early access → fans become micro-investors + gain status (early comments)
- Daily Pass: monetises archives; encourages binge via paid unlocks
Social capital
- Top-comment competition; Fast Pass holders advantaged
Limitations & Critiques
- US-centric view count disadvantaging local creators
- High output pressure (40 panels/ week) + crowded marketplace
- True profit only at high tier; artistic freedom may suffer

Webtoon comment section = primary in-platform interaction
For deeper engagement, artists rely on Instagram, YouTube Live, podcasts, etc. (e.g., Acception outfit contest on IG)
Highlights need for multi-platform strategy despite Webtoon’s centrality

Gatekeeping shifts from publishers to algorithms → popularity metrics dictate visibility
“Liveness” & scheduling recreate broadcast logics within on-demand environment
Fan identity increasingly quantified (likes, badges) rather than material/ event-based
Affective engagement measured, commodified; echoes Massumi’s critique of value quantification
Raises ethical questions: labour precarity, data ownership, algorithmic opacity

Develop interdisciplinary, data-literate media studies integrating fan & comics scholarship
Analyse algorithms as active agents within cultural systems
Situate texts within socio-economic labour conditions (free, precarious, professionalised tiers)
Avoid “technochauvinism” (Broussard 2019); maintain critical stance toward platform promises

Platform economy fundamentally reshaping participatory culture: content + data both commodified
Webtoon exemplifies how interface design, business model, and fan practices co-evolve
Opportunities: global reach, new monetisation, creative formal innovation
Challenges: inequality, output pressure, siloed metrics, algorithmic gatekeeping
Academic response: embrace systemic, collaborative, ethically informed research to stay relevant in platform era