Webtoon Entertainment, the U.S.-listed arm of Naver Webtoon, has eliminated its chief technology officer and chief operating officer positions, restructuring its executive lineup around a chief product officer, chief business officer, an AI head, and an IP business head. The reorganization is seen as a structural move to execute the "flywheel" growth strategy laid out by President Kim Yong-su, who took the helm in March.
/ Image generated by Gemini
According to industry sources, the company said the reshuffle was aimed at consolidating region-by-region operations into a unified global structure to improve business efficiency. Webtoon Entertainment said it plans to rapidly build momentum to support growth by accelerating its business and focusing on company-wide innovation through this reorganization.
The changes come roughly a month after Kim's appointment was formalized. On March 5, Webtoon Entertainment named Kim — then serving as chief strategy officer — as president, handing him oversight of global operations. CEO and board chairman Kim Jun-gu stepped back from day-to-day management to focus on long-term vision.
At a press briefing in Seoul on March 17, President Kim outlined his flywheel model: discover new content, attract creators, grow the user base, then use that scale to surface more new content. The three axes of the flywheel are content, creators, and users.
In this reorganization, Webtoon Entertainment abolished the CTO and COO roles and established new positions including CPO and CBO. The changes have also brought broader shifts to how work is structured across the organization.
Under the new structure, Chae Yu-gi, formerly head of Korean services, takes the CPO role and will consolidate Webtoon's product organizations — previously split across Korea, Japan, and North America — under a single function. The CPO is responsible for platform advancement and service innovation, ensuring all three flywheel axes turn smoothly.
Yeon Go-eun, recruited as CBO from Woowa Brothers where she served as chief growth and marketing officer, will oversee global Webtoon and Korean business operations (excluding Japan), with a mandate to expand markets and drive platform growth — in effect, enlarging the flywheel itself.
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