According to the IT industry on the 19th, Naver Webtoon unveiled a user reward system that grants a "True Fan" tier to those who reach a certain Fan Score. The Fan Score is a feature that calculates fan devotion for each work up to a maximum of 99.9 points, based on a reader's reading rate, payment history, comment activity, and timing of viewing the latest episodes. Scores can be checked for works read for 10 or more episodes, and readers who reach 80 points or higher have a "True Fan Badge" for that work displayed in the comment section.
Readers who attain the True Fan tier gain a status differentiated from other users through the badge when writing comments. By structuring it so that scores rise with more activity, the plan is to provide readers with a sense of pride and motivation, while simultaneously driving voluntary return visits and longer engagement times.
Naver Webtoon has steadily strengthened community features targeting fandom culture. In April, it introduced "tier badges" divided into seven levels—from "Masterpiece" (top 0.1%) to "Bronze" (top 20%)—based on a year's worth of overall platform activity, and opened "Author Home," a dedicated communication channel for creators, expanding points of contact between authors and readers.
Webtoon Entertainment, Naver Webtoon's parent company, emphasized in its second-quarter shareholder letter that "by introducing the new community feature of tier badges, we are activating users' fandom activity and participation beyond simply reading works, and inducing continuous return visits."
This fandom ecosystem is cited as a key driving force propelling expansion beyond webtoons into various secondary content such as short-form dramas, animation, and games. The previous day, Naver Webtoon released live-action short dramas of six works, including North American originals, through the English and French versions of its global service "WEBTOON." These are popular titles with a combined global cumulative view count exceeding 1 billion, and are composed of 40 to 50 episodes of 1 to 2 minutes each.
Naver Webtoon described this attempt as "an experiment to promote IP consumption by offering original readers a fresh viewing experience, and to build a virtuous cycle for IP by increasing platform engagement time." Naver Webtoon had earlier unveiled "video episodes" that can be enjoyed in about five minutes per installment, and in Japan, its Line Manga partnered with "d Anime Store," the largest animation OTT (over-the-top) service, to link some 4,000 animation titles—focusing on diversifying video formats.
The industry analyzes that Naver Webtoon's moves are part of a lock-in strategy to solidify its top position in the rapidly growing global webtoon market. According to global market research firm Business Research Insights, the global webtoon market is expected to grow sharply from $7.63 billion (about 10.75 trillion won) this year to $57.18 billion (about 80.56 trillion won) by 2035.
