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Article History

Received: 19 December 2024

Accepted: 4 March 2026

First Online: 25 March 2026

Competing interests

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: Ethical review and approval were waived for this study due to the Bioethics and Safety Act of Korea, Chapter 15. The Act, particularly its Enforcement Regulation Chapter 13, indicates that IRB approval would be exempted for research that uses public information or research that doesn’t collect or record personal identification information. The regulation was enforced by the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Korea from December 3rd, 2025. ( ).

: Adult participants were recruited through Embrain, a pre-registered online research panel. Consent was obtained electronically by the Embrain prior to participation. A recruitment notice describing the study purpose was presented on the Embrain website, and only those who voluntarily clicked the “participate in survey” button proceeded to the questionnaire. Before the survey began, participants were provided with an information guide stating that the study aimed to examine consumers’ perceived value of webtoon merchandise; that all collected data would be used solely for academic statistical research in accordance with relevant confidentiality regulations under the Statistics Act; that participants’ anonymity would be strictly guaranteed; and that they could contact the research team if they experienced any discomfort or had questions about the study. No personally identifiable information was collected; only minimal demographic information (age and gender) was obtained for analysis. The study involved no vulnerable populations. The study posed no foreseeable risks to participants.