Sales at Webtoon Entertainment rose 5.1% in 2024, to $1.35 billion, per its financial report for the 2024 fiscal year, but the company’s net loss increased to $152.9 million, due in part to higher costs associated with becoming a public company last summer. The Korean-based webcomics company, which has large customer bases in the U.S. and Japan, said its net sales were negatively impacted by currency fluctuations and that, had currency changes not been a factor, sales would have increased 13%.
Paid content remained by far Webtoon’s biggest business in the year, with sales up 5.3%, to $1.08 billion, on a constant currency basis, which excludes the impact of currency changes. The division offers a paid content platform that features webcomics and webnovels from both amateur creators and professionals. Advertising sales rose 19.8%, to $174.2 million, while Webtoon's newest business, IP Adaptation, posted a 6.7% increase in revenue, to $108.8 million. The company finished the year with about 160 million active users.
Since it went public, Webtoon’s share price has tumbled. In June, the company went public at $23 per share, but its share price closed on February 25 at just $10.03 per share. And its outlook for the first quarter will not encourage investors: the company forecasts that sales in the current quarter will either post a small increase over last year’s first period or a decline of as much as 4.8%. The forecast for EBIDTA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) follows the same range, which varies from a small increase to a a decline of 1.7%.
