webtoon

Webtoons () are a type of episodic digital comics that originated in South Korea usually meant to be read on smartphones. While webtoons were mostly unknown outside of South Korea during their inception, there has been a surge in popularity internationally thanks to the easy online accessibility and variety of free digital comics. Today, Webtoons make roughly $5.91 billion globally. In the country, as digital comics have emerged as a popular medium, print publication of comics has decreased. The amount of material published in webtoon form has now reached an equal amount as that published offline.

==Format== Webtoons usually feature a few of common traits: each episode is published on one long, vertical strip (making use of an infinite canvas rather than multiple pages so that it is easier to read on a smartphone or computer); some feature music and animations that play during each chapter; and unlike the majority of East Asian comics, they are usually in color instead of black-and-white since they are published digitally on a website or app rather than physically in a magazine. In the case of South Korea, there are also different censorship laws for materials published online than in print which has led to more comics that are erotic and sexually explicit being produced and published as webtoons.