$50,000 Comic Contest Debuts New System for Webcomic Artists to Become Published and Reach New Audiences
November 20, 2014 – LOS ANGELES – LINE Webtoon, the popular webcomic service available on smartphones, tablets and web browsers, has officially launched Challenge League, a new feature that allows for artists to submit their webcomics for a chance to become an official LINE Webtoon artist. Challenge League is free for webcomic fans and aspiring artists looking to showcase their talents and gain recognition, while discovering the best comic content available via mobile and desktop.
To officially launch Challenge League, LINE Webtoon will host a $50,000 competition globally, to discover the best new webtoon artists. Anyone over the age of fourteen can participate in the competition by uploading a webcomic in English at www.webtoons.com/challenge. To be eligible to win the prizes, the content will be judged based on audience engagement, such as number of views and shares. Additionally, LINE Webtoon’s staff will evaluate the content based on creativity, originality and the artist’s ability to publish webcomics on a weekly basis. The prizes include two $5,000 third place prizes, a $10,000 second place prize and a $30,000 grand prize. The contest is free to enter and will run until January 25, 2015. The winner will be announced on January 30, 2015. LINE Webtoon will continue providing the Challenge League service on its official site after the contest.
“We have spent over ten years discovering and showcasing some of the best webtoon artists and content to our fans, and now we’re giving them the chance to become official LINE Webtoon webtoonists through Challenge League,” said JunKoo Kim, Director and Head of the LINE Webtoon Division. “Based on Challenge League’s popularity in Korea, where 73.4 percent of LINE Webtoon artists are discovered through Challenge League, we are excited to launch the competition globally and discover the next generation of webcomic artists.”
In sharing their creations, Challenge League artists can meet their audience and communicate with them through the simple and easy to use interface. This ecosystem was created to help creators gain popularity and become official webtoonists within the LINE Webtoon service. LINE Webtoon also offers opportunities to recreate the webcomic across diverse media such as movies, TV series and more to expand beyond just webcomics. LINE Webtoon is dedicated to helping artists launch a full time career, with some Webtoon artists earning up to $80,000 a month.
In addition to the contest, LINE Webtoon will be working with universities and centers of higher education to reward student artists that participate in the Challenge League competition. If a student wins the $30,000 grand prize, LINE Webtoon will also make a matching $30,000 donation to the student’s university or place of education. If the grand prize winner is a student, they will also be offered a contract to produce webcomics for LINE Webtoon officially.
LINE Webtoon, launched in the U.S. and globally on July 2, 2014, currently offers approximately 53 webcomics, including multiple globally heralded series among the 520 original NAVER webtoons. Popular titles include “Noblesse”, “Tower of God”, “The God of High School” and more. LINE Webtoon users can enjoy multiple genres of webcomics, easy access to download content on-the-go and can receive update notifications when newly-released webtoons are available. Featuring advanced social sharing and comment functions, LINE Webtoon also includes a rating system to drive more exposure for popular artists.
Fans can access Challenge League by visiting http://www.webtoons.com. To download LINE Webtoon, visit the Apple App Store (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/line-webtoon/id894546091?mt=8) and Google Play (http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.naver.linewebtoon). From November 27, fans can read Challenge League content through these mobile applications.
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ABOUT NAVER: (http://www.navercorp.com/en/index.nhn)
NAVER Corporation is Korea’s premier Internet company, operating the nation’s top search portal ‘NAVER’. NAVER was launched in June 1999 and has since stood at the forefront of the growth of Korea’s search service. NAVER has introduced many innovative search services over the years, such as ‘Comprehensive Search’, ‘Knowledge iN’ and ‘Real-time Rising Keyword’. In addition, since releasing the ‘NAVER’ application, NAVER has launched applications for a wide variety of services. NAVER offers innovative mobile services for the global market, including the mobile messenger LINE through LINE Corporation, NAVER’s subsidiary. NAVER launched the Webtoon service in June 2004 in Korea and has pioneered distribution and consumption of webtoons, also known as internet cartoons. The service receives a daily average of 6.2 million hits from unique visitors and has accumulated a total of 29.2 billion total visits as of June 1, 2014. NAVER launched the LINE Webtoon service worldwide on July 2, 2014.