webtoon

• (animated Web cartoon): Web +‎ toon, dating from at least 2001 (see citations).
• (kind of Korean comic): Introduced as a trademark in the U.S. in 2014.

webtoon (plural webtoons)

1. (Internet) An animated cartoon published on the World Wide Web.
   • 2001, 11 September, "Rob Cruickshank, part-time human being", Re: Strange ad copy of the day (on newsgroup alt.slack)

     Have a webtoon! Elf Life: http://www.elflife.com

   • 2006, Ethan Watrall, Norbert Herber, Flash MX 2004 Savvy, page 12:

     As Flash Webtoons and animated shorts have become more and more popular, a spate of tools have cropped up to facilitate their creation.

   • 2008, Don Rauf, Monique Vescia, Virtual Apprentice: Cartoon Animator, page 29:

     Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi used Flash animation to bring cartoons (sometimes called online cartoons or webtoons) to the Internet.

   • 2009, Caroline Nixon, Michael Tomlinson, Kid's Box 5 Pupil's Book: Book 5:

     More and more cartoons are made using special techniques with a lot of help from computers. Some people are making cartoons for the internet. These are called webtoons. You could make a webtoon, too.

   • 2010, Michael Duggan, PSP Game Creation for Teens, page 13:

     When it comes to Flash animated cartoons, also called webtoons, the first noted use was in 1999 when Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi set out to bring cartoons to the Web. Soon after, webtoons began popping up everywhere.

2. A kind of Korean comic that is published digitally for reading on a smartphone or computer.
   • 2018, WESTECH 2018: Proceedings of 1st Workshop on Environmental Science, Society, and Technology, WESTECH 2018, December 8th, 2018, Medan, Indonesia, page 166:

     We can read a webtoon using an application on our phone.

   • 2021, Brian Yecies, Ae-Gyung Shim, South Korea's Webtooniverse and the Digital Comic Revolution, page 155:

     Now producing a branded webtoon and adding a webtoon platform to a company's overall promotional branding strategy makes it look in-step with the times and popular culture.

   • 2022, John A. Lent, Wendy Siuyi Wong, Benjamin Wai–ming Ng, Transnationalism in East and Southeast Asian Comics Art, page 104:

     Easy access is another positive trait of webtoons—facile because of the elimination of distribution hassles, […]