Who owns WEBTOON?
WEBTOON is owned by NAVER (South Korea, KRX: 035420).[1][2][3]
NAVER owns 59.67% of WEBTOON rather than all of it.
Evidence: NAVER Reports Q4 2025 Revenue of KRW 3.1951 Trillion and Operating Profit of KRW 610.6 Billion, with Annual Revenue Reaching KRW 12.035 Trillion, NAVER Corporation, 6 February 2026. Last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- NAVER Corporation (59.67% stake) reported
- Owner HQ
- 🇰🇷 South Korea, Seongnam
- Origin
- 🇰🇷 South Korea
- Category
- Internet & digital › Digital services › Digital publishing
- Parent ticker
- KRX: 035420
- Last verified
- · 3 sources
About WEBTOON
WEBTOON is the vertically scrolling web-comic platform run by NAVER WEBTOON Ltd. and published worldwide by WEBTOON Entertainment Inc., the Delaware company NAVER floated in the United States in June 2024. NAVER is still its controlling stockholder, holding 80,353,557 shares, or 59.67 per cent, at the record date for the 2026 annual meeting, with LY Corporation holding a further 23.34 per cent. WEBTOON Entertainment's other offerings include WEBTOON Korea, LINE MANGA, NAVER SERIES, Munpia and Wattpad.
Ownership timeline of WEBTOON
Where WEBTOON sits in NAVER
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full NAVER ownership tree →
See the full NAVER brand portfolio (8) →
Other brands owned by NAVER
NAVER controls 8 brands on Brandtree, 8 of them in internet & digital.
Also in internet & digital
- BAND
- NAVER (1999)
- NAVER Blog
- NAVER Café (2003)
- NAVER Map
- NAVER Pay
- Poshmark (2011)
Other brands in digital publishing, and who owns them
The 36 brands in digital publishing on Brandtree belong to 20 owners. The largest is Astro, with 4; NAVER has 2.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Astro Ulagam | Astro | 🇲🇾 Malaysia |
| Research Exchange | Wiley | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Engadget | Apollo | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Allrecipes | IAC | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Bossip | Urban One | 🇺🇸 United States |
| Audible | Amazon | 🇺🇸 United States |
| BOOK☆WALKER | Kadokawa | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| BMC | Springer Nature | 🇩🇪 Germany |
About the owner: NAVER
NAVER is a publicly listed company headquartered in Seongnam, South Korea, founded in 1999. Brandtree records 8 brands under its control, and it is listed as KRX: 035420.
NAVER Corporation is the South Korean internet company behind the country's dominant search portal, incorporated in June 1999 when NAVER.com launched. It reports revenue in five divisions — Search Platform, Commerce, Fintech, Content and Enterprise — and took KRW 12.035 trillion in 2025, 12.1 per cent more than the year before, with operating profit of KRW 2.2081 trillion. Its major affiliates are NAVER CLOUD, SNOW, NAVER LABS, NAVER WEBTOON and NAVER FINANCIAL. Outside Korea it owns the American resale marketplace Poshmark outright and is the controlling stockholder of the US-listed WEBTOON Entertainment.
🇰🇷 WEBTOON and other South Korean brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 185 brands that began in South Korea. 7 of them (4%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; WEBTOON is not one of them.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of WEBTOON?
The parent company of WEBTOON is NAVER, a publicly listed company headquartered in South Korea.
Is WEBTOON South Korean?
Yes. WEBTOON originated in South Korea and its owner, NAVER, is also headquartered in South Korea.
Is WEBTOON still owned by NAVER?
Yes. As of 27 September 2026, WEBTOON is still owned by NAVER (59.67% stake). The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (3) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] NAVER Reports Q4 2025 Revenue of KRW 3.1951 Trillion and Operating Profit of KRW 610.6 Billion, with Annual Revenue Reaching KRW 12.035 Trillion — NAVER Corporation, Official press release, published 6 February 2026; retrieved 27 September 2026.
- [2] WEBTOON Entertainment Inc. Proxy Statement for the 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders — SEC EDGAR, SEC proxy statement, published 22 April 2026; retrieved 27 September 2026.
- [3] WEBTOON Entertainment Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025 — SEC EDGAR, SEC Form 10-K, published 5 March 2026; retrieved 27 September 2026.
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