ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

This study aims to develop strategies for the global expansion of Korean webtoons by conducting a multi-step analysis based on data from global webtoon consumers. First, logistic regression and network analyses were employed to examine global consumption patterns of Korean webtoons. The findings revealed that experiences with Korean publications and animations positively influenced webtoon use among foreign Hallyu fans. Concurrently, the experience of comics consumption among global consumers was also significantly related to webtoon usage. Next, topic modeling analysis was applied to classify global webtoon consumers into distinct types. The analysis identified five consumer segments: “Life-Lesson-Oriented,” “Visual-Oriented,” “Character-Oriented,” “Romance-Oriented,” and “Multi-Genre-Oriented.” Logistic regression and a machine learning technique, random forest, were employed to evaluate the market performance of each segment. The analysis revealed that the “Visual-Oriented” and “Multi-Genre-Oriented” types were associated with significantly higher subscriber counts. The Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) further confirmed the robustness of these findings. This study repositions webtoons as a distinct category of cultural content, and offers novel insights through an integrated data analysis approach combining traditional statistical methods with machine learning techniques. These findings have practical implications for segmenting the global webtoon market and for developing targeted marketing strategies. Moreover, this study underscores the policy implication that cultural content policies should reflect global webtoon consumer usage patterns and preferences in order to facilitate more tailored and effective support systems.

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