Spottoon: A new webtoon reading platform

So I’ve been hearing a lot about “webtoons” lately. For those of you who weren’t aware, webtoons are basically just the name Koreans give to webcomics. But since South Korea has such a large webtoon market, the name has really stuck. It’s even entering into more general usage here in the US as several South Korean webtoon companies are expanding into English-speaking markets. One of my friends even took second place in a science fiction webtoon contest on one of their sites.

Today, I get to tell you about a new webtoon reading platform, Spottoon, being produced by the South Korean company RollingStory.  Today’s their Grand Opening, and  I got the full scoop from the company and even a backstage pass to take a look at some of their comics (which I’ll post reviews for soon).

RollingStory is a newer company that was formed by a group of South Korean webtoon creators as a cooperative group to try to take their webtoons to the US market.  As part of this, they are partnering with The Huffington Post to host some of their webtoons there.  5 of their comics are up there with 10 episodes each already, with more to come.  And on top of that, there is even an exhibition in New York City running until the 16th of October about webtoons, featuring some of Spottoon’s comics!

But the BIGGEST thing that RollingStory is working on right now is their new webtoon reading platform, Spottoon.  Their goal with it is to provide US and international readers with access to a set of officially translated webtoons from some of the best Korean cartoonists, optimized for vertical scrolling for reading on computers, tablets and phones. Social functions are programmed in to the platform allowing readers to both like and share scenes from their favorite webtoons with their friends on Facebook and Twitter, by email or SMS. You can even read offline by downloading an episode to enjoy later, or via the free mobile app.

If you’re familiar with some other comic and webtoon reading platforms, Spottoon offers much of the same functionality, optimized for mobile viewing. But while many favor a revenue stream for creators based on ads, crowdfunding and the like, Spottoon uses the traditional model of supporting creators by paying for an issue. They are continually refining their model, but their current plan is that published episodes are free, but you can pay to read episodes AHEAD of the update schedule, at $0.99 per episode.

There are about 20 different webtoons available online to read and download at the moment, with comics updating every day of the week. In the coming days I’m going to review a couple of them. With 7 different genres (Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Thriller, Comedy, Action and Mystery), I’m confident that there is probably a new comic you could find and enjoy. The site is free to use and free to register, so if you’d like to discover a taste of the South Korean webtoon market, I heartily recommend you check Spottoon out 🙂

Disclosure: This has been a sponsored post, for which I received financial compensation.  However, all views expressed herein are my own.