So just speculating like an idiot, but I saw this recently (my sympathies to Tom Akel) and it got me thinking:
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/11/06/tom-akel-fired-from-line-webtoon/
Do you think that Line is going to be changing their approach in the coming months? Or do you have an idea on what they could change to be better? How do you feel about Line as a reader vs a creator now that industry has grown?
If I remember correctly from an interview, Tom Akel saw Line as the "youtube" of webtoons with a comic for everyone. I think they've been pretty successful and like that they have a diverse line-up for featured, but maybe there's such a thing as too much diversity. It seems like some of the "western-styled" comics that debuted in October weren't received well as far as numbers go (relatively speaking and one in particular I feel bad for) and Line readers or the webtoon market is geared towards the more manga/manhwa style. Traditional or "western" comics have readers (lots of really successful indiegogo campagns this year) but maybe not for Line when they already have such a large Discover section to tap into. Or maybe it's just me wanting to see more of their korean webtoons translated, since that's why I downloaded the app in the first place. Also, a couple of featured have been "revived" after a while, which made me realize that Line is pretty hands off with their creators (Jason Brubaker has said this as well) and doesn't seem to axe featured comics like in the manga industry. I'm mixed about this. I know creators like to have control and love their stories, but I can only work on so many comics in my lifetime and wouldn't mind being told "hey, you can do better" if it's true. I'm redoing a comic for the 3rd time, its not so bad.
Finally, there's an increase in competition in the past year. It was mainly just Line and Tapas for awhile when it came to webtoons, but now there's growing competition from Lezhin, WebComics, TappyToon (has a successful Kickstarter campaign going), etc. Toomics is one I'm excited about since they have really great webtoons on there. I think Webnovel also added comics. But basically there's quite a few newcomers and Line, though overwhelming popular, is still dependent on us, the creators who make the comics. Growing options for publishing is good news for us and I might make another thread about this since comics are changing fast. Do you as a creator feel like moving your comic to an alternative publisher would be a good idea? Is monetization a factor for you or is Line's huge traffic too enticing? Or would you prefer to go independent?
Sorry for all the rambling and thank you for reading this far, but been awhile since I've caught up with what's happening in comics. I started making comics about two years ago and so much has happened since then, and much thanks to this forum for being here along the way!