Web novels in South Korea

Web novels in South Korea (Korean: 웹소설; Hanja: 웹小說; RR: Websoseol) have been growing in popularity in the 21st century.

Among e-publishing fields, web novels are the core contents that are leading the e-book market.

Just as webtoons (online comics) grew in the early 2000s in South Korea, web novels have been growing rapidly since 2010.

[1] South Korean web novels began to spread in late 1990 with literature of PC communication such as Nownuri, Chollian and Hitel (The current service has been terminated).

Some of the representative works include 「The Soul Guardians」(퇴마록; 退魔錄; Toemarok) (1993), 「The Legend of Maian」(마이언 전기; Maieon jeongi) (1995), 「The Raising Falcon」(비상하는 매; Bisanghaneun mae) (1996), 「Dragon Raja」(1997), 「Karsearin: Adventures of a Red Dragon」(카르세아린; Kareusearin)[3][4] (1998), 「Dragon's Temple」(용의 신전; Yongui sinjeon) (1998), 「Mukhyang」(묵향; 墨香) (1998),[3] and 「The Stone of Days」 (세월의 돌; Seworui dol) (1998).

[7] Since 2000, unstable social conditions such as the IMF economic crisis and the end of the century syndrome have caused people to fall into virtual reality.

In April 2007, an e-book company, Booktopia (The current service has been terminated), opened a genre novel website called Waki.

[7] Since October 2022, a service such as YONDER have begun to officially translate Korean web novels into English.

[9] Before that, to address the demand from non-Korean speakers, many piracy sites illegally distributing English translated versions of webnovles arose.

However, the cultural ministry of Korea has taken a hard stance on illegal distributors of Korean webnovels to uphold copyright protection.

In addition, the process of producing, distributing, and consuming web novels takes place almost simultaneously.

[2] Also, as payment methods are now easier in digital, readers can enjoy web novels, which are priced at around 100 won per episode.

[11] The reason why serialization is important in web novels is that it not only enables gradual commercialization but also allows potential readers to flow through interaction.

Therefore, the know-how of ending the story is important in each episode where the reader's curiosity reaches its peak.

Due to short breathing and rapid development, it is highly immersive and easy to visualize because it has a drama format.

In China, web novels are attracting attention as IP (Intellectual Property) that are easy to develop with various contents such as webtoons, movies and games.

[12] Joara is the nation's largest web novel platform with 140,000 writers, with an average of 2,400 serials per day and 420,000 works.

Murim," which was opened in 2002 by writers of martial arts novels such as 'Geumgang (currently CEO Kim Hwan-cheol).'

The site focused on the genre of martial arts novels, and was characterized by the high age range of readers.

[17] KakaoPage first started its service on April 9, 2013, but it did not mainly serve web novels and webtoons from the beginning.

[14] Since 2017, Ridi Corporation has been expanding its content spectrum, serving web novels in different products.

In the case of Naver, a total of 25,542 web novels were posted on the N store as of August 2015, of which romance topped the list with 13,164 (64.08 percent).

[2] Platform, CP (Contents Provider) and writer are the main players in the web novel industry.

It also generates profits by publishing serial or completed works in paper books or by producing and selling goods.