Naver Webtoon announced on the 23rd that its artificial intelligence (AI)-based chatting service 'Character Chat', which allows users to converse directly with characters from webtoons, has surpassed 100 million messages.
Character Chat is a chatting service that delicately analyzes and implements the character's personality, speech patterns, and work information. Since its launch in June last year, the number of character types offered by Character Chat has increased from an initial four to the current twelve. It has also incorporated role-playing mode, intimacy-based conversation models, and game-like elements.
According to Naver Webtoon, as of this month, the cumulative number of users of Character Chat has reached approximately 3.5 million since its one-year launch. The total number of messages exchanged between the chatbot and users has exceeded 100 million.
Character Chat operates on a system where users purchase paid messages after depleting the limited free messages. As more loyal users have emerged, the proportion of paid messages has steadily increased. As of May, paid messages accounted for 41% of all messages. The average payment per person has also almost doubled compared to the first week after the service launch.
The chatbot 'Teruteo', the male protagonist character of 'My World is Obsessed with Me', added in April, recorded a paid message proportion of 52% as of May.
The experience of conversing with webtoon characters through Character Chat has been shown to be effective in increasing the influx to original works and consumption of other works.
For instance, the number of episodes viewed by users of the Naver Webtoon 'Star's Three Shop' chatbot 'Seol Hyo-rim' increased by 97% when comparing a week before and after the release of that character chatbot. The number of work viewers increased by 29%, the number of purchasers by 22%, and the revenue by 44%.
Similarly, users of the '99 Enhanced Wooden Stick' 'Love' character chat saw a 77% increase in the number of episodes viewed of the original work during the same period. The number of work viewers increased by 20%, the number of purchasers by 12%, and the revenue by 31%.
Character Chat users also showed a tendency to visit the Naver Webtoon app more frequently and consume more works. In a comparison of activity metrics in the app over two months targeted at Character Chat users, all metrics increased: the number of days visiting the app (8%), the number of days viewing works (7%), the number of works viewed (11%), the number of newly viewed works (32%), the number of episodes viewed (8%), and the payment amount (4%).
By age group, Character Chat is notably popular among those in their teens and twenties. Teens and twenties account for 76% of Character Chat users, with teens comprising the highest proportion at 47.6%.
Kim Hyo-jeong, Chief Product Officer (CPO) of Naver Webtoon, said, "I believe that Character Chat can be a new direction for the digital products offered by the webtoon platform," adding that "we plan to incorporate voice and visual-related AI technology into Character Chat to expand the user experience, and we are also considering global service expansion."