Webtoon Artist's Income Triples After Pirate Site Shuts Down
This news from the webtoon world highlights how big a difference can be made in the fight against pirated publishing. Popular webtoon artist Hyunwook announced that after a pirate site was shut down, his income on paid platforms fully tripled. What is even more striking is that the artist's own works were never hosted on that pirate site.
Hyunwook said in a statement on the matter: “I wasn’t expecting much of an effect since my work wasn’t even on that site, but my paid income increased about threefold.” These remarks clearly show how shutting down pirate sites positively impacts not only content creators directly affected by piracy but the entire industry.
So how was this possible? According to experts, pirate sites function as “alternative sources” that distract readers. When a pirate site is shut down, readers who used that site naturally move to legal platforms. This increases organic discovery across the entire webtoon universe. Hyunwook’s works may not have been on that site, but there were pirated copies of other webtoons in the same category; when readers switched to legal platforms, they discovered and started reading other content as well.
This development could reshape the anti-piracy strategies of major platforms like Naver Webtoon and KakaoPage. In the past, the impact of shutting down pirate sites was often measured as instantaneous or regional. But this data shared by Hyunwook shows that the effect is much broader and deeper than we thought. With the global growth of the webtoon industry, combating piracy is no longer just a legal obligation but also a vital step for the creator economy.
Similar pirate site shutdowns are expected to increase in the coming period. Signs of international operations targeting some major Korean-based pirate networks had already been given. The Hyunwook example proves that these operations can result in tangible income increases not only for large publishers but also for individual artists. For webtoon fans, this once again reminds us that the most effective way to directly contribute to the artists they support is to use legal platforms.
