Ramble of the Week #6 (Negative Post - Webtoon)

I want to rage so bad, man. I'm so sorry.

For the ones that didn't know, Webtoon has a separate website called Webtoon Translate. It was essentially a MangaDex of Webtoon.
Yes! This website has the key element to combat piracy. It was a great website that allowed fans to translate their favorite Webtoon into English or any of their preferred language. It is so good that they are making the world most greatest decision ever...

They're gonna shut down the server on November 26th this year.

THEY ARE SHUTTING DOWN THE SERVER ON NOVEMBER 26TH!

They are joking, right? If they shut it down, they're just inviting more piracy. Why? Why would you do that? It didn't make any sense whatsoever.

You know what? Let's take a step back and talk about Webtoon and this website's history as a whole, from its foundation to what it has become.

Mar 9, 2015
Webtoon Translate was born! The place where fans can interact with their favorite creator by bringing their favorite Webtoon creator's work to a new reader from across the world to read by translating it into English.

At first sight, this is great! Indonesian, Thai, and Chinese are getting their local favorite Webtoon creator into broader views. Even though this is great, everyone didn't see it as equal! Only a little amount of Indonesia's Komik, Thailand's การ์ตูน, and China's Manhua get translated.

Apparently, I just discovered this on another day, the creator has to have an agreement to get their Webtoon translated. I don't know why all of them didn't just do that, but at least it made some of them get new foreign fans.

Indonesia's komik titles that were translated in the website are Eggnoid, Flawless, My PreWedding/Pasutri Gaje (Weird Married Couples), 7 Wonders, 9 Lives, Aegis Orta, Born from Death, Deadly 7 Inside Me, Good/Bad Fortune, Si Juki: Lika Liku Anak Kos (Si Juki: The Ups and Downs of a Boarding House Kid), Sing Bahu Rekso, The Normies, Virgo and the Sparklings, and Wonderwall.

It's not that many, by the way. These are still ten percent of Indonesia's Komik on Webtoon.

Thailand's การ์ตูน titles that were translated in that website are 100 ภารกิจเปลี่ยนชีวิตผมกับคุณครู, BACKSTAGE ชอบตอนเธอรัก, Buddy Marry ไม่ใช่เธอไม่แต่งหรอกนะ!, Housemate แชร์หัวใจยัยตัวป่วน, Whistler รักนี้(ไม่)ต้องมนตร์, ขอโทษครับ ผมไม่ใช่คนแถวนี้, ถูกใจนายติดอ่างที่รัก, and เสี่ยงหัวใจมารักนายต้องคำสาป.

Don't ask me what all these meant, I'm not a Thai. 😅
What I do know is that these titles are the same as Indonesian; there are still a fractured amount of local titles that aren't getting a fan translated. There were definitely more that could go in there to get translated by fans.

I didn't find any Chinese, but there are some English local titles as well on that site.

The point of the matter is that this website helps the creator to get noticed outside the country. These titles, like Eggnoid and Flawless, wouldn't be able to be translated officially without this website.

Heck, I even have a story to tell you about.

There is a title called Ghost Teller, which was available on all servers... Except for the international one. English didn't have this title from the get-go, like us Indonesians, Thais, and Chinese. I don't know why they decided to do that. Heck, I can even tell you some exclusive Manhwa on the Indonesian server that didn't have an English official translation.

Brothers and Sisters, Magical Change, Possessed/Mayago/Demoniac, etc.

The point is that the title, Ghost Teller, is exclusive to other languages except English. So, when the title reaches its season 1 conclusion, they are panicking because they didn't have enough resources to make season 2. They didn't keep silent about it either. That's why they decided to put their title on Webtoon Translate.

It was a booming success, and everyone was excited to hear that they were going to make season 2. But here was the catch: to do that, they needed to be an official to the English audience, too. They finally made a plan to put their Manhwa in the Webtoon Challenge (known as Canvas now) to get their title as an English Original Webtoon title.

Lo and behold, they did it!
Not only that, they even come in to work with Lico! For Webtoon's readers, do you remember Refund High School? Yes! That's their second title.

I was proud of them. Webtoon Translate yet again shows to be a good website for Webtoon.

Bear in mind, btw! Webtoon Translate has been in development for TEN YEARS! Yes! TEN! They didn't update it or care about it at all. I mean, they did an update for Canvas' Creators to put their title there, but after that, there were none.

Instead of developing this website even more, what did they do?

...

They made a decision that we, Webtoon readers, couldn't fathom to breathe in. They went greedy and added a coin system to their platform. At first, I thought this was good for the creator, but that was far from the truth.

In the first couple of years, it actually went great; they got more events that they could do with this system than before, like coin hunt, spin the wheel, and daily read to get coins out from their platform by reading more webtoons.

Heck, they even have a new team to promote a lot of stuff in Webtoon. They have a Webtoon page, at least in English, called Lozolz. Don't ask me how to read that; the team didn't even know how to read it either. 😂
It's a Webtoon where the team promotes merch, contests, their blog of their travel to Comic Con, and even Canvas promotion.

After that, they even have a mascot for their team! It was Wiggle!
They went ahead and gave her her own new Webtoon called Webtoon Greenlight. It's a place to shout out the winner of a contest. Well, that is the sole purpose of that Webtoon anyway.

Those Webtoons are great to engage with the reader. And you might ask, "But Tim, what does this anything to do with Webtoon Translate?"
I just want to show you that they used to have a face for their platform, because they knew what they were doing.

Okay, remember when I said that I thought the coin system benefited the creator? Yeah, it didn't. The coin system has made old Webtoon get locked behind a paywall, making the webtoon that has finished airing, and translated on Webtoon Translated, be removed, unless you read them on your phone/handheld device. Even then, the translated one couldn't recover at all. Making you can't read any of the translated webtoon.

Yes! The amount of hard work of the fans over the years, translating their favorite webtoon, just vanished without warning. Remember when I said the creator has to have an agreement with the higher-ups to have their Webtoon on the website? Well, it is the same that can be said here, the creator freely decided to get their creation to get a paywall or not... unless the said Webtoon is famous!

You see, in the Indonesian Webtoon community, there is this one creator named Annisa Nisfihani, who writes My Pre-Wedding, Pasutri Gaje, Me vs Big Slacker Baby, and Virgo and the Sparklings. She is insanely famous for her work, but unfortunately, she was on a long surgery that made her unable to continue making komik.

So, what does Webtoon do to make sure her fans are still reading her comic? That's right! They make a live-action series out of it...
But wait a minute! Why... is... the... poster... felt... different? Huh? They promote it with an AI poster? Is that why it looked familiar to Into the Spider-Verse? Because the movie just aired that year? WTF?

Oh, don't worry. I'm sure they...
Oh, God! What? They promote Maybe Meant to be (great Manhwa btw) with her character from Pasutri Gaje? What the f*ck? You're driving the fans away from her Webtoon. Why?

Oh, thank God, she finally recovered. She could finally finish her work and...
Wait a minute, why is it locked behind a paywall? Oh, I get it! They want to help Annisa get her surgery money back by...

*Looked at her Instagram*
Annisa: "I don't know why my work got locked behind a paywall. The Main Center of Webtoon Korea asked to lock it even when I said no."

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK? LIKE WHAT THE HELL!

I am so done with Webtoon. They are just... EEEEUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHHAAAAAAAA

I was about to leave Webtoon, but here is the thing! They did what Nintendo did. They grabbed old and new readers with nostalgia. Now, they have manga like Fullmetal Alchemist, Clevatess, Bumpkin Hero, and Cyberpunk. Heck, even superheroes like DC and Marvel are joining Webtoon. Oh, it didn't stop there; they even got Disney joining as well, YES! Star Wars is available on Webtoon, too.

If you forgot, let me remind you. I am a curious person. You teased me with something I like, I will be there no matter what. So, yeah, I couldn't just leave without reading some of those.

Look, man. I have my highest doubt when they introduce Creator Feed as a feature on Webtoon. It literally reminded me of Reddit. No joke.
Now, they even add TikTok/Instagram Reel/YouTube Shorts feature in the app. Like wtf?
Isn't the point of this app to provide comics/manhwa/manga? Why would you need a SosMed feature embedded in the app?

I would make a video about this, but I'm not confident in my voice at all. I tried to tag Chibi Reviews on Twitter/X to talk about it in his YouTube video, but I guess it didn't get through to him.
I'm not mad about it. I understand that he has far more important matters to show than Webtoon. I mean, his whole stick is Japanese culture, Webtoon was just a sideline, so yeah.

I bet my penny he didn't even know how much we, the old readers, are suffering from this company because, believe it or not, he still promotes Webtoon in a good light.
Again! I'm not mad. I just wish he knew. That would be better.

I want to leave this company, but I can't. I cared so much about the creator in this space, too much. It's hard to just... leave. I love reading Webtoon, and I love sharing new Webtoons with others. But the company is so shit, man. They are an a*hole.

I don't know, man. I don't know anymore. It's driving me kind of crazy these past weeks. I just had to let it out. It is so draining just thinking about this company.

Oh, did I forget to mention? I had a list of weird decisions they made for the website and app.

- A subscription that lets you get coins per week. Yes, they didn't even have the common courtesy to make it like MangaPlus.
- The ads on the app are getting crazier, and they've embedded them everywhere on the app, even in the settings menu.
- Their TikTok/InstaReel/YTShorts feature used an AI voice actor. They didn't even bother to hire a VA to do it, even though they have that many ads on the app.
- They removed the banner, making a lot of Canvas Creators not get a shout-out to the main landing page of the app.
- Their landing page on the app didn't show any Canvas Creator webtoon unless you drag down to the very bottom or click the Canvas section. This feature holds my same grudge against MangaPlus, because, believe it or not, MangaPlus also has this thing on their app.
- And finally, a super like feature. This one was super weird. You can send a superlike on a Webtoon chapter... if the said Webtoon has a name in its title, like Merryweather, for example. He enables his superlike feature, so you can send that on one of his many Webtoons, unlike Manhwa or Manga, or a translated Webtoon.

I'm so sorry. This has been my longest ramble on this Novel Blog. I just had to let it out. It is driving me crazy.
I hope this can be read by lots of you and Webtoon content creators on YouTube.

Hope you are well, and I'll see you next time.