FOG LAND fan experiences, The Remarried Empress and Marvel originals expand the company’s North American business
WEBTOON Entertainment is taking its North American business from the convention floor to the streaming screen this fall. FOG LAND anchors the company’s booth #2335 at New York Comic Con, October 8–11, while The Remarried Empress premieres on Disney+ and Hulu on November 4. Alongside Marvel originals and a planned Disney comics service, the projects show how digital stories can reach readers, viewers and merchandise buyers through different channels.
The company’s September 17 announcement sets out a program that extends beyond the exhibition floor. Performers appearing as FOG LAND characters will take elements of the series into New York streets. At the booth, collectibles, plush toys, clothing and accessories give readers a way to engage with the property beyond their phones. Free show bags and a WEBTOON Unscrolled book-and-merchandise gift bag for VIP attendees add a publishing component.
WEBTOON Entertainment’s setup for New York Comic Con 2026. Graphic: K-EnterTech Hub
Booth #2335, with signings spread across all four days
Fog Land, the title carrying the booth, is a series still in its run. Its WEBTOON page showed 18.2 million views and 432,927 subscribers on Sept. 22. It updates every Tuesday, the latest chapter being episode 38, “Cleansing Ritual,” posted that day, with 18 episodes available early in the app. The story follows Dante Kang, a science teacher who agrees to teach at Fog Land, an international prison for the world’s most notorious criminals, and whose first class is broken up by a riot.
The Fog Land series page on WEBTOON’s English service, showing 18.2 million views and 432,927 subscribers. Image: WEBTOON screen capture
Source: Fog Land series page on WEBTOON, checked Sept. 22, 2026
Signings open on Oct. 8 with ToniRenea (Osora) and close with the same creator on Oct. 11. Amyahue! (The Egg Project) and Punko (Cinderella Boy, Stagtown) appear on Oct. 9, and POGO, Shen (Bluechair) and Ucheomaaa (Vibe Check!) on Oct. 10.
Source: WEBTOON Entertainment press release, Sept. 17, 2026. All signings take place at booth #2335
Wattpad staff and authors fill out the panels. “Ship Happens” brings Anna Todd, the Wattpad author of After; Wattpad head of content Alessandra Ferreri; and the No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Casey McQuiston, moderated by Mashable’s Crystal Bell. “Beyond Borders” is moderated by Allegra Frank of The Atlantic.
A $2.2 billion North American market, with comic shops growing faster than bookstores
The ICv2 and Comichron estimate for 2025 is $2.2 billion across the U.S. and Canada, with roughly $1 billion in the direct market, where comics rose 30% and graphic novels 28%. WEBTOON’s own print route into that market opened in November 2021 with the graphic novel imprint WEBTOON Unscrolled, distributed through Penguin Random House Publisher Services. The books in the NYCC VIP bags come from that imprint.
Sources: ICv2 and Comichron 2025 white paper, RX Global, WEBTOON Entertainment results
Kakao pulls the plug on Tapas, thinning the field
Kakao will shut down Tapas, its North American webtoon platform, ICv2 reported, with the timeline and integration plan due on Sept. 29. Kakao closed the web novel platform Radish in 2025 and is consolidating as it prepares to split into two companies. Tapas hosted Kakao-owned properties such as Solo Leveling alongside creator-owned titles including Let’s Play and The Beginning After the End; no guidance has been issued yet for creators or subscribers.
Sources: ICv2 (September 2026), WEBTOON Entertainment Q2 2026 earnings call, Tappytoon announcement (December 2022)
Q2 revenue of $338.5 million; full-year 2025 revenue of $1.382 billion and a $373.4 million net loss
Second-quarter revenue was $338.5 million, down 2.8% year on year and up 5.2% in constant currency. Paid content was $286.7 million on a constant-currency basis, up 4.3%, and advertising was $50.4 million, up 11.5%. The operating loss was $15.57 million and the net loss $14.58 million. Third-quarter guidance is $358 million to $368 million of revenue and adjusted EBITDA of zero to $5 million.
Q2 2026 revenue with constant-currency growth. Source: WEBTOON Entertainment second-quarter earnings call
Revenue for 2025 was $1.382 billion, up 2.5%, and paid content revenue was $621.5 million in Japan (+4.6%), $331.2 million in Korea (-6.1%) and $134.8 million in the rest of the world (-1.0%). The net loss widened to $373.4 million from $152.9 million in 2024, adjusted EBITDA was $19.4 million, and the company held $581.8 million in cash with no debt.
2025 paid content revenue by region. Source: WEBTOON Entertainment full-year 2025 results
Korea grows on users and spending; English-language markets are held with events
In the second quarter Korea had 24.3 million monthly users, up 5.9%, with 3.8 million paying users, up 10.4%, and average revenue per user up 14.8%. Japan’s monthly users fell 3.3% to 21.8 million while average revenue per user rose 2.9% to $24.40. Rest-of-world users grew 0.2%, at $6.90 per user.
Source: WEBTOON Entertainment Q2 2026 earnings call
Q2 2026 monthly active users by market. Source: WEBTOON Entertainment second-quarter earnings call
The booth sells merchandise, experiences and creator access to readers the platform already has, rather than chasing new installs. The six creators carrying the booth publish originals developed for English-language readers rather than translations of Korean series.
Money moves toward games and IP: 60% of Allied Games, a $100 million fund with NAVER
WEBTOON is acquiring a 60% stake in Allied Games Holdings in two closings to build a game pipeline from its comics, and in July it set up a $100 million IP adaptation investment fund with NAVER (네이버). Chief executive Kim Jun-koo (김준구) said on the second-quarter call that the company keeps testing AI-based formats such as short-form animation while increasing direct IP investment.
The IP runs toward Disney: The Remarried Empress on Nov. 4, three Marvel originals to come
The live-action adaptation of the Naver Webtoon series The Remarried Empress (재혼 황후) premieres on Disney+ and Hulu on Nov. 4, with four episodes on day one and two more every Wednesday through Nov. 25. Shin Min-a (신민아) plays Empress Navier, Ju Ji-hoon (주지훈) Emperor Sovieshu, Lee Jong-suk (이종석) Crown Prince Heinrey and Lee Se-young (이세영) Rashta. Cho Su-won (조수원) directs, from scripts by Yeoh Gee-na (여기나) and Hyun Choong-yeol (현충열).
The source comic began as a Friday series on Naver Webtoon (네이버웹툰) in October 2019, written and drawn by Sumpul (숨풀) from a web novel by Alphatart (알파타르트). Korean outlets have reported cumulative readership of 2.9 billion views. The path runs from a Korean platform serialization to an American streaming original.
The platform tie runs to Disney as well. On Sept. 15, 2025, Disney and WEBTOON Entertainment said WEBTOON would operate a subscription service carrying more than 35,000 digital comics from Marvel, Star Wars, Disney, Pixar and 20th Century Studios alongside WEBTOON Originals, with a curated selection included for Disney+ subscribers at no extra cost.
In the same announcement Disney signed a non-binding term sheet to take a 2% equity interest in WEBTOON Entertainment.
Supply began in August 2025, and WEBTOON’s Disney section now carries more than 20 Marvel comics. At San Diego Comic-Con in July 2026, Marvel announced three originals built for vertical scroll: Tony’s Girl, about a teenage Tony Stark; a Deadpool series that jumps between WEBTOON genres; and X-Men Korea, centered on a Korean high school student. The Deadpool title is written by Ucheomaaa, one of the creators signing at this year’s New York Comic Con.
WEBTOON also ran a Marvel panel, “Entire Universes in Your Pocket,” at last year’s New York Comic Con. Image: WEBTOON Entertainment
Sources: Disney and WEBTOON Entertainment announcements, Variety and AIPT reporting, Q2 2026 earnings call
Outlook: user counts are not the lever; pricing and IP are
WEBTOON’s English-language paid content revenue was $134.8 million in 2025. Set against $2.2 billion of comics and graphic novel sales in the U.S. and Canada — a different kind of number, but the same market — it is about 6%. Rest-of-world monthly users grew 0.2%, to 111 million. Growing revenue by adding users has not worked over the past four quarters.
That leaves price. Average revenue per user in the second quarter was $24.40 in Japan and $6.90 in the rest of the world, or 28% of the Japanese level. In Korea, paying users rose 10.4% to 3.8 million and revenue per user rose 14.8%. What the company is attempting in English-language markets is the same combination, built out of merchandise, experiences and print. That is what the booth is for: readers it already has, not new installs.
The costs land in the fourth quarter. Third-quarter adjusted EBITDA guidance is zero to $5 million, and the New York Comic Con spend, the Allied Games consolidation and the first outlays from the $100 million NAVER fund all fall into the quarter after it. The 2025 net loss was $373.4 million against $581.8 million of cash. How fast that cash is used while marketing and IP investment rise at once is the thing to watch in the fourth-quarter report.
The IP side reports first. The Remarried Empress runs on Disney+ and Hulu from Nov. 4 to Nov. 25, and its performance sets a reference price for live-action rights to webtoons — the number Korean producers and platforms will cite in their next negotiation with an American streaming service. The 35,000-title comics subscription built with Disney has no announced launch date; because a curated slice comes free with Disney+, it shifts the cost of acquiring English-language readers from WEBTOON’s own marketing to a distribution deal.
Tapas’s shutdown is the supply-side variable. Kakao-owned properties will most likely stay inside Kakao, while creator-owned titles such as Let’s Play are the ones that can move. If WEBTOON absorbs them, its English-language lineup thickens; if it does not, North American webtoon readers stay scattered across fewer apps. Kakao’s Sept. 29 announcement sets that.
The order of evidence is therefore: The Remarried Empress in November, fourth-quarter paying users and revenue per user in English-language markets, and the launch date of the Disney comics platform. If all three move, the flat English-language revenue line resolves in the first half of 2027. If only one does, the booth and the events stay on the books as marketing expense.
Sources
· WEBTOON Entertainment press release on its New York Comic Con 2026 activation (Sept. 17, 2026). https://about.webtoon.com/press-release/257
· The Beat (kcomicsbeat), “WEBTOON returns to NYCC with programming and creators” (Sept. 18, 2026). https://kcomicsbeat.com/2026/09/18/webtoon-returns-to-nycc-with-programming-and-creators/
· The Outerhaven, “WEBTOON Brings FOG LAND to Life at NYCC” (Sept. 17, 2026). https://www.theouterhaven.net/webtoon-brings-fog-land-to-life-at-nycc/
· ICv2, “ICv2 White Paper: Comics and Graphic Novel Sales Reached New High in 2025.” https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/61573/icv2-white-paper-comics-graphic-novel-sales-reached-new-high-2025
· ICv2, “Kakao Pulls the Plug on Tapas Webtoon Platform” (September 2026). https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/63436/kakao-pulls-plug-tapas-webtoon-platform
· RX Global, “New York Comic Con Wraps 2025 Show With Over 250,000 in Attendance.” https://rxglobal.com/new-york-comic-con-wraps-2025-show-over-250000-attendance-weekend-celebrity-appearances-comic-icons
· WEBTOON (WBTN) Q2 2026 earnings call transcript, Motley Fool (Aug. 17, 2026). https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2026/08/17/webtoon-wbtn-q2-2026-earnings-call-transcript/
· WEBTOON Entertainment fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results. https://seekingalpha.com/pr/20422845
· Money Today (머니투데이), Aug. 11, 2026. https://www.mt.co.kr/tech/2026/08/11/2026081108055838799
· Dealsite (딜사이트), Aug. 11, 2026. https://dealsite.co.kr/articles/166956
· Business Wire, “Tappytoon Surpasses 7 Million Members” (December 2022). https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221205005184/en/
· Publishers Weekly, “Wattpad Webtoon Launches Print Graphic Novel Imprint” (November 2021). https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/comics/article/87925-wattpad-webtoon-launches-print-graphic-novel-imprint.html
· WEBTOON, Fog Land series page (checked Sept. 22, 2026: 18.2 million views, 432,927 subscribers). https://www.webtoons.com/en/action/fog-land/list?title_no=9299
· The Walt Disney Company, “Disney and WEBTOON Entertainment Broaden Relationship to Create New Digital Comics Platform” (Sept. 15, 2025). https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/news/disney-and-webtoon-entertainment-broaden-relationship-to-create-new-digital-comics-platform/
· AIPT, “Marvel unveils three original WEBTOON series at SDCC” (July 30, 2026). https://aiptcomics.com/2026/07/30/marvel-webtoon/
· Vital Thrills, “The Remarried Empress Sets Disney+ and Hulu Premiere” (August 2026). https://www.vitalthrills.com/the-remarried-empress/
· Korean-language Wikipedia entry for The Remarried Empress (Naver Webtoon serialization from October 2019; art and script by Sumpul, web novel by Alphatart). https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/재혼_황후
· Korean entertainment coverage (Aug. 26, 2026) citing 2.9 billion cumulative views for the webtoon
· Anime News Network, “Live-Action Remarried Empress Series Sets November 4 Debut” (Aug. 27, 2026). https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2026-08-27/live-action-remarried-empress-series-sets-november-4-debut-reveals-teaser-trailer/.241023