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Webtoon Ent. Reports US$15.6 Million Operating Loss in 2nd Quarter of 2026
posted on by Wonhee Cho
WEBTOON Entertainment Inc. reported an operating loss of US$15.6 million for the second quarter of 2026, widening from an operating loss of US$8.8 million in the same period last year. The company disclosed the results on August 10.
Quarterly revenue came in at US$338.5 million, down 2.8% year-over-year.
The company attributed most of its headline revenue decline to a weak Korean won and Japanese yen. Adjusting for currency swings, revenue would have grown 5.2% year-over-year, with all three of WEBTOON's businesses — paid content, advertising and IP adaptations — posting gains in local-currency terms.
Korea was the standout market. Revenue there rose 16% year-over-year to roughly US$93.5 million, helped by the live-action series adaptation of The Legend of Kitchen Soldier and the continued run of martial-arts hit Return of the Blossoming Blade, now in its third season. The number of paying users in Korea jumped 10.4% to 3.8 million.
Japan, WEBTOON's largest market by revenue, told a different story: revenue there fell 15.6% year-over-year, dragging on the company's overall paid content business even as Korea and other regions grew.
Company-wide, monthly active users reached 156.9 million, up 0.5%, while monthly paying users rose 1.8% to 7.5 million.
Founder and CEO Junkoo Kim pointed to a priority driving the quarter: leaning further into AI-powered features, including an auto-translation tool for amateur creators' work and an AI-driven interactive story chat service called byUs. Kim also pointed to shifting away from licensing out its IP toward owning more of it directly.
For the third quarter, WEBTOON forecast revenue of US$358–368 million on a currency-adjusted basis.
Sources: WEBTOON Entertainment's press release, YNA (Kyung-yoon Kim)
