Development of Customer Sentiment Pattern Map for Webtoon Content Recommendation

Webtoon is a Korean-style digital comics platform that distributes comics content produced using the characteristic elements of the Internet in a form that can be consumed online. With the recent rapid growth of the webtoon industry and the exponential increase in the supply of webtoon content, the need for effective webtoon content recommendation measures is growing. Webtoons are digital content products that combine pictorial, literary and digital elements. Therefore, webtoons stimulate consumer sentiment by making readers have fun and engaging and empathizing with the situations in which webtoons are produced. In this context, it can be expected that the sentiment that webtoons evoke to consumers will serve as an important criterion for consumers' choice of webtoons. However, there is a lack of research to improve webtoons' recommendation performance by utilizing consumer sentiment. This study is aimed at developing consumer sentiment pattern maps that can support effective recommendations of webtoon content, focusing on consumer sentiments that have not been fully discussed previously. Metadata and consumer sentiments data were collected for 200 works serviced on the Korean webtoon platform 'Naver Webtoon' to conduct this study. 488 sentiment terms were collected for 127 works, excluding those that did not meet the purpose of the analysis. Next, similar or duplicate terms were combined or abstracted in accordance with the bottom-up approach. As a result, we have built webtoons specialized sentiment-index, which are reduced to a total of 63 emotive adjectives. By performing exploratory factor analysis on the constructed sentiment-index, we have derived three important dimensions for classifying webtoon types. The exploratory factor analysis was performed through the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) using varimax factor rotation. The three dimensions were named 'Immersion', 'Touch' and 'Irritant' respectively. Based on this, K-Means clustering was performed and the entire webtoons were classified into four types. Each type was named 'Snack', 'Drama', 'Irritant', and 'Romance'. For each type of webtoon, we wrote webtoon-sentiment 2-Mode network graphs and looked at the characteristics of the sentiment pattern appearing for each type. In addition, through profiling analysis, we were able to derive meaningful strategic implications for each type of webtoon. First, The 'Snack' cluster is a collection of webtoons that are fast-paced and highly entertaining. Many consumers are interested in these webtoons, but they don't rate them well. Also, consumers mostly use simple expressions of sentiment when talking about these webtoons. Webtoons belonging to 'Snack' are expected to appeal to modern people who want to consume content easily and quickly during short travel time, such as commuting time. Secondly, webtoons belonging to 'Drama' are expected to evoke realistic and everyday sentiments rather than exaggerated and light comic ones. When consumers talk about webtoons belonging to a 'Drama' cluster in online, they are found to express a variety of sentiments. It is appropriate to establish an OSMU(One source multi-use) strategy to extend these webtoons to other content such as movies and TV series. Third, the sentiment pattern map of 'Irritant' shows the sentiments that discourage customer interest by stimulating discomfort. Webtoons that evoke these sentiments are hard to get public attention. Artists should pay attention to these sentiments that cause inconvenience to consumers in creating webtoons. Finally, Webtoons belonging to 'Romance' do not evoke a variety of consumer sentiments, but they are interpreted as touching consumers. They are expected to be consumed as 'healing content' targeted at consumers with high levels of stress or mental fatigue in their lives. The results of this study are meaningful in that it identifies the applicability of consumer sentiment in the areas of recommendation and classification of webtoons, and provides guidelines to help members of webtoons' ecosystem better understand consumers and formulate strategies.

웹툰 콘텐츠 추천을 위한 소비자 감성 패턴 맵 개발

웹툰은 인터넷의 특징적 요소들을 활용하여 제작되는 만화 콘텐츠를 온라인 환경에서 소비 가능한 형태로 유통하는 한국형 디지털 만화 플랫폼이다. 최근 웹툰 산업의 급격한 성장과 함께 웹툰 콘텐츠의 공급량이 기하급수적으로 증가함에 따라, 효과적인 웹툰 콘텐츠 추천 방안의 필요성이 커지고 있다. 웹툰은 회화적 요소와 문학적 요소, 디지털 요소의 복합적 산물로서, 독자로 하여금 재미를 느끼게 하고 웹툰이 연출하는 상황에 이입·공감하게 하는 등 소비자의 감성을 자극하는 디지털 콘텐츠 상품이다. 따라서 웹툰이 소비자에게 전달하는 감성이 소비자가 웹툰을 선택함에 있어 중요한 기준으로 작용할 것이라 기대할 수 있다. 본 연구는 기존에 충분히 논의되지 않았던 소비자 감성을 중심으로, 웹툰 콘텐츠의 효과적인 추천을 지원할 수 있는 소비자 감성 패턴맵의 개발을 목적으로 한다. 본 연구의 수행을 위해 '네이버 웹툰' 플랫폼에서 서비스되는 200개 작품에 대한 메타데이터와 소비자 감성어휘 정보를 수집하였다. 분석 목적에 부합하지 않는 작품을 제외한 127개 작품에 대해 488개의 감성어휘가 수집되었다. 이후 수집된 감성어휘들 간 유사감성 통합, 중복감성 배제 과정을 Bottom-up 접근으로 수행하여 총 63개 감성유형으로 축소된 웹툰 특화 감성지표를 구축하였다. 구축한 감성지표에 대한 탐색적 요인분석을 수행하여 웹툰 유형을 분류할 수 있는 3개의 중요 차원을 도출하고, 이를 기준으로 K-Means 클러스터링을 수행하여 전체 웹툰을 4개 유형으로 분류하였다. 각각의 유형에 대해 웹툰-감성 2-Mode 네트워크를 구축하여 웹툰 유형별로 나타나는 감성 패턴의 특징을 살펴보았으며, 프로파일링 분석을 통해 웹툰 유형별 인사이트와 실무적으로 의미 있는 전략적 시사점을 도출할 수 있었다. 본 연구의 결과를 통해 웹툰의 추천 및 분류의 영역에서 소비자 감성의 활용 가능성을 확인하고, 웹툰 생태계 내 구성원들이 소비자를 보다 잘 이해하고 전략을 수립할 수 있도록 돕는 가이드라인을 제시하였다는 점에서 의의가 있다.