A theory on Line Webtoon

[UrMom]

Pff I had a similar experience a while back. My comic made it on the Discover front page thing until I reached 6k subs, then got booted off. Although right after it was booted the comic hemorrhaged almost 1k subs, so I got 5200 or so now which goes down by about 50 when I update. Of that number updates get 130-200 likes and 6-20 comments depending on if I'm promoting something. (readers really hate when you promote stuff)

I don't think any fancy stuff is going on, even on here comics with hundreds of thousands of subs get a fraction of that interacting with their work. My comic has around 1200 subs here, but updates get 50-70 likes and 2-10 comments, which is admittedly a little better but still not a whole lot compared to the sub count.
It might also depend on the community as well. The majority of Webtoons' reader base consists of kids/teens, while Tapas has an older audience given the site's 17+ age rating.

All sites probably have some bot activity but a lot of them are either lurkers or people who've subbed to read the comic later. I do the latter sometimes if a comic looks interesting but I don't have the time to read it right away. Webtoons staff probably thought you comic had some potential, and wanted to test it out. If a comic gets mega popular right away (like double digit thousands) I think they're more likely to keep it on the front page longer... at least from what I've seen.
It took my comic 2-3... maybe 4? months to get to 6k, and got some low ratings from the community during that time, so I can see why they'd drop it as soon as it was eligible for monetization.

[akiocha]

I may actually agree with you on the theory of if you get popular fast, they're more likely to continue supporting you. I keep a really close eye out on the discover page recommendations after I got featured there and I found that the comics that did well very quickly stayed for longer.

[UrMom]

It makes sense. Throwing different comics out there to see what sticks, then discontinuing support for ones that don't work out. I remember some of the comics that went up on the front page with mine stayed looong after it was taken down, but those comics had twice the subs and higher ratings. Some of the same comics that stuck also made their way on the Recommended Titles list under the Discover tab.

[soapcahtoa]

I don't think Webtoon is scheming... Naver is a mega rich company investing its wealth into a platform that has skyrocketed in Asia. They don't need profit right now, they're still trying to grow into something that will dominate. Massive audience is because they've been advertising everywhere for the past several years, reader engagement has always been a tiny, tiny fraction of views, drop in engagement is due to the mobile discover interface change, and you might get sudden sparks of readership because they select random comics to promote without notification. And the longer you are on front page, the less effective it becomes because most readers will have already seen your comic.

TLDR everything u guys r saying just seems pretty normal to me

[Hecarim]

I absolutely agree with this! I'm one of those readers who rarely EVER leave a comment, mostly because I have nothing to contribute/shy/bad at wording compliments. I try my best to leave a like on the episode, but I often forget because the like button is so small and forgettable.

I've noticed that there's a trend with people adding "Don't forget to like the episode!" to their comment, which is lovely, but supports the idea that people just forget to like the episode/ can't be bothered to.

After observing my own stats, I've noticed that even the silent readers like me would leave a comment if there is something that "directly" addresses them, or prompts them to speak out. I asked people to submit questions for a Q&A for my comic recently, and the comments went from ~200ish in previous story updates to 1,400- on an update with only one panel- which is why I support the theory that the majority of readers are "silent", and that it's totally normal.

The next update I did answering the Q&A asked people to leave a donut emoji in the comments if they would be interested in a part 2! I think I got a lot of comments again because it gives the readers some influence and something to comment even if they didn't have anything to say.

And what I got was:

1. A lot of donuts
2. A generous amount of comments saying "I never comment, but here I am [insert donut emoji]"

Apologies if I went completely off topic/rambled! I just thought this was interesting, and I haven't had my coffee yet..

[Zugaikotsu]

I have to say that this donut idea was a genius move! may I copy you?

[Hecarim]

Ayy be my guest! It would make a cute trend XD

[Zugaikotsu]

Yaaayy! \o/ Loved it! xD

[scythe]

Yep, I've had the same experience. Back when you could get into the Patreon program with 7k subs, I got promoted until I was at nearly 8k, then when I was removed I lost about 300 in a week, which slowly dripped away back down to about 7.1k. But even after the loss it was still great for me at the time because it meant I was getting $200 a month!

It just happened to me again just recently and now I'm closing in on 8.8k and a couple of weeks later it looks like it's stabilising at around 8.75k, which is only a loss of about 50, which is great compared to last time.

But even though I've just experienced a spike of 1500 new subs, my new updates aren't getting any more engagement than they were before, so I think people need to temper their expectations on that front, like others have pointed out, a whole lot of views and subs doesn't necessarily mean you'll get an equivalent number of likes and comments. Those two things in particular depend much more on the content itself.

[NanettesClouds]

takes off tinfoil hat

I may have been a bit reactionary.
I still don't like webtoons very much but for reasons that are completely separate from this discussion.

[scythe]

Ha, it's not just you, lots of people feel the same way, and this question about where they get their money from comes up constantly, and after what went down with Inkblazers, it's a perfectly reasonable one.

I for one love a good tin foil hat when it makes sense.

[TadxSarah]

Me personally all i care about is people enjoying my webtoons and having fun with what i do.

Unless you get featured you can't expect to get rich off of these comic websites.

True both Line-Webtoon and Tapas has it's pros and cons though at the end of the day what really matters is your main reason for posting your comics.

For me one of my comics "I Love My Yandere Neko Girlfriend" just reached 9,124 Subs, but i'm not in a rush to reach 10,000 to make the $100 cut. It happens, when it happens.

Some people can take this as Line-Webtoon challenging us to grow more or as a discouragement.

And some other people like me don't mind either way.

It all depends on your perspective

[bakasama25]

They might get money from Naver, the parent company, which is the Korea's version of Google.

[Im_moron]

Just as weird (but no one complains about it) is that lots of, lets face it, bad comics, that are uploaded to Webtoons seem to get wild amounts of attention as soon as they're uploaded?

I can probably test y'alls theory that "bad" comics seem to be getting an absurd amount of attention...

lemme go on webtoons, and upload a series of randomly colored pages, and see what happens to my view count there... agent moron on the way

[Im_moron]

alright, so I made this series, do not look it up on line webtoons as I don't want anyone from this thread boosting up it's stats

I wanna test line webtoons through ONLY the webtoon userbase, the test will be ruined if anyone from this thread looks at it (or at least my results wont come off right)

first page has been uploaded, episode title "don't read this", comic tells you "not to read this" and uploaded an image of a white blank canvis

if my views come up, either idiots or rebels clicked on my comic through reverse psychology, or something's fishy going on...

I intend to upload the same page with the same text for around 3-4 weeks maximum, every day.

I'll write some fancy graph or upload my results here for the first week at most

(edit: also changed my name to "don't subscribe to me)

[SedateCanopy]

I just wanted to tell you that you're a genius!

[Im_moron]

im not a genious, I'm a moron xD

[lunchtiiime12]

Watch it get a front page feature.

[scythe]

Just as weird (but no one complains about it) is that lots of, lets face it, bad comics, that are uploaded to Webtoons seem to get wild amounts of attention as soon as they're uploaded? How? Why? Some people will say it's because Webtoons has a larger userbase than Tapas, but you know what has a larger userbase than Tapas AND Webtoons? goddamned YOUTUBE, and when garbage gets uploaded there it doesn't find ANY viewers (granted youtube has a very different algorithm and search function from webtoons and tapas, but like, how much is that algorithm on webtoons actually helping people?)

I actually missed this comment. It's something I've noticed too, and it's left me scratching my head on more than one occasion.

But really, I think it probably does just come down to subjectivity. What you and I consider bad, tweens lap up like chocolate milk (that's what all the kids are drinking these days, right?)

I've seen some of what I would consider woeful artwork being praised as being the best on the site. I've seen webtoons failing just about every test of decent fiction writing being begged for in the comments section like it was crack. I don't think it's nefarious, I think it's just a case of young readers having poor taste and not knowing any better.

Some stories, for whatever reason, just hit the spot with the bulk of the regular Webtoons crowd, and once it all gets rolling, it can often start a snowball effect.

By contrast, on Youtube, you can go viral if you have something interesting to say that isn't being talked about in the mainstream, but presentation isn't actually all that important there.

I think it's all just about what the regular visitors to the site are looking for.

[lunchtiiime12]

When you are the owner/artist, that's fine. When you have an artist on payroll, there is a lot more pressure.