The 2023 Gyeonggi International Webtoon Fair, a specialized webtoon exhibition geared to revitalize the webtoon industry, closed with a record-breaking 27,844 visitors.

Hosted by Gyeonggi Province and co-organized by the Gyeonggi Content Agency and KINTEX, the 2023 Gyeonggi International Webtoon Fair ran from October 5 to 8 at KINTEX in Goyang City.

This year’s Gyeonggi International Webtoon Fair featured a variety of side events, including exhibitions for fans and the general public who love webtoons, export sessions for domestic webtoons, business consultations for film and drama adaptations, and lectures by popular webtoonists.

This year’s event, the fourth since its inception in 2019, attracted 27,844 visitors, surpassing the previous record of 22,795 set in 2022. As a testament to the event’s popularity, “Webtoon Fair” was the top trending topic on X (Twitter) on October 7 and 8.

Various events were held by participating companies, including Daon Creative, Carrottoon, DCC ENT, Story Forest, Studio 389, Terrapin, AB Entertainment, to attract the attention of webtoon fans. A lecture by Park Tae-jun, the author of the popular webtoon ‘Lookism’, and a discussion and autograph session by the author of ‘Girl’s World’ Moranji heated up the main stage.

As in previous years, the presence of cosplayers was also noticeable. Cosplayers from all over the country dressed as various cartoon and anime characters, attracting the attention of visitors throughout the venue. For the convenience of cosplayers, changing rooms, makeup areas, and luggage storage were also provided.

A total of 131 domestic webtoon companies, domestic and foreign buyers, and webtoon platform companies participated in the business consultations to discuss the export and commercialization of webtoons. A total of 566 business meetings were held, resulting in USD 13.2 million in export contracts.

Oh Gwang-seok, Director of the Content Industry Division of Gyeonggi Province, said, “We will do our best to make it a more interesting and meaningful event next year by taking advantage of K-Webtoons, which are rapidly emerging among the K-content fields.”