If the early 2000s were the start of anime and manga becoming much more popular, and the post-2020 has seen the boom of web novels and light novels? Then the 2010s was the age of the digital comic. Webtoons hit it off during this time, becoming mainstream thanks to the advent of the smartphone era. And it hasn’t exactly calmed down since, considering how much of a following it’s garnered, with millions of fans around the world following every update.

And it turns out, it does pay to be a popular creator on apps such as Line WebToons, Naver, and the like. If you’re a featured artist on some of the big-name hosting sites, you’re looking at numbers such as $30,000 per year. But some of the biggest ones, like the ones getting deals for animated projects or live-action adaptations, can easily rack up in the millions. That is an amazing payout for an app that is essentially ‘free’ unless you want some of the extra perks, such as unlocking newer chapters ahead of time.

But that’s also why webtoons got popular in the first place. Not only are they highly accessible, requiring the most basic of smartphones to sift through the extensive library available. But the ‘free’ option means you can consume to your heart’s content without ever having to pay a penny. Unless, of course, you want to give something back to the creator as a form of thanks, which can easily be done through gift points or merely subscribing to their project for extra content at the cost of a small fee.

No wonder WebToons have become a huge avenue for the fandom crowd, considering how much freedom it allows an artist to create stories while not having to deal with the complications of buying your site or server to hose your comic. Plus, it helps it isn’t something as time-consuming as animation. But, say that you’re a newer artist looking to gain traction for your digital comic. What kind of numbers should you expect?

Canva VS Featured: How Payment On WebToons Work

So, obviously not every comic creator on these apps hits it big almost instantly. Because of how big the platform has gotten, the competition is bigger than ever. There are just so many good stories to sift through, that a lot of them get lost in the noise.

But that’s why the categorizing system online WebToon works. You have the Featured Originals collection, which has all the big-name webtoons over the years that have become a staple of the app. Think Lore Olympus, I Love Yoo, Purple Hyacinth, and the like. These are the webtoons you can only find on the app alone and are personally endorsed by the company. They get the most advertising and perks because they hold a stronger audience base.

Then you have Canva, which are the webtoons that are starting. These webtoons are put out to see if they gather enough followers to be made into an Original later on. Canva is for experimenting and getting a feel for what is popular and what isn’t. It features most of the newbie artists, allowing them to create and release work on their terms without the pay that the Original creators get. If they do good enough, they get featured on Spotlight. If they do even better, then Line WebToon itself will approach them to sponsor them.

Is The Salary Package Worth Creating Webtoons?

Well, that depends. Making a webtoon isn’t easy work, especially if you’re on a one-man team. Adhering to Line WebToon rules and making their deadlines can be extremely exhausting. However, if you’re making money, you can easily hire more people to ease the burden.

But that’s only for the big creators. Smaller creators have a much harder time doing everything on their own. They aren’t making the same amount of money, so a lot of their advertising, their PR work, and the creation of the comic itself are on them. And if the comic doesn’t take off the way they want it to, well. It’s not exactly a waste, but it feels like high risk, low pay.

There is a huge salary discrepancy, with most creators on Canva not even earning $10,000 per annum and some Original creators making millions. So, take from that what you will!