WEBTOON CFO Navigates Creator Economy Shift as Platform Pursues Profitability

The content management platform that turned Korean webcomics into a global phenomenon is now wrestling with a question familiar to every CFO in the creator economy: how do you build a sustainable business when your product depends on millions of independent artists?

David Lee, who serves as both CFO and COO of WEBTOON Entertainment, is attempting to answer that question while managing what amounts to a two-sided marketplace at massive scale. On one side: creators publishing serialized comics to hundreds of millions of readers. On the other: a monetization model that needs to work for both the platform and the people making the content.

The challenge is particularly acute in WEBTOON's case because the company operates in what Lee describes as a "fandom" business—users aren't just passively consuming content, they're forming communities around specific creators and series. That creates powerful engagement metrics (the kind that look great in investor presentations), but it also means the platform's value is inextricably tied to creator satisfaction. Lose the creators, lose the fans, lose the business.

This is the central tension in every creator economy platform, and it's showing up in WEBTOON's financials in predictable ways. The company has to balance platform fees, creator payouts, and the operational costs of hosting and distributing content at scale. Get the split wrong and creators leave for competitors. Get it right and you've built what Lee calls a "billion-dollar fandom."

The operational complexity here is worth noting. WEBTOON isn't just managing a content library—it's managing relationships with creators across multiple countries, each with different payment systems, tax requirements, and content regulations. Lee's dual role as CFO and COO means he's simultaneously tracking cash flow and figuring out how to scale creator support operations. That's a lot of plates to spin.

The company's approach appears to center on what Lee frames as a creator economy "playbook," though the specifics of that playbook weren't detailed in his recent discussion with CFO Leadership Council. What is clear is that WEBTOON is treating creator relationships as a core financial metric, not just a marketing talking point. When your entire revenue model depends on people continuing to publish content on your platform, creator retention becomes as important as customer retention.

For CFOs watching the creator economy space, WEBTOON's experience offers a useful case study in the financial mechanics of platform businesses. The unit economics are tricky: each new creator potentially brings new readers (good for growth), but also increases payout obligations and support costs (bad for margins). The trick is finding the creators who bring disproportionate value—the ones who build fandoms, not just audiences.

The broader question for Lee and his peers: can creator economy platforms achieve the kind of margins that traditional media companies enjoy, or is this a fundamentally different business model that requires different expectations? WEBTOON's answer will likely influence how investors value similar platforms in the years ahead.