Same concept: telling a story using picture dialogue and panels but instead of being on books, they are designed for websites. Whats the differences? well there are plenty:
1/A chapter of webtoons is represented in 1 continuous image. It make the story much more fluent once the reader start reading using browser just by scrolling down the website. The panel is almost non exist which cause the pictures become much bigger. There could be some effect applied to the pictures make the stories could be told in different angles, or even closer to animation approach
and example how it works could be the image below:
+ Show Spoiler +
same concept could be applied to tell the time line changing from day to night, to tell the depth of the spaces by 'scrolling'
2/Distributed by websites. Yes, most of the stories are published from Naver and on time. So if you want to read the latest chapter of a series you like, all you need is stay awake past 12PM KST and the chapter will be available on the site.
3/ The art. Most of the time they do split into Shounen shoujo to target different audience (boys, girls, teenagers etc..) just like manga but the art style is definitely readable from both point of views. This could be an adaptation of the current Manhwa style but clearly this helps a tons in term of attracting multiple market. If you look at a series which has Vampire (which 40% of the are) and pretty boys running around with long hair, keep on reading because that could be a series that is stacked with action pack, spells and blood. On the other hand shoujo looks quite similar to the moe blob type in the recents anime mangas. Oh, the entire thing is colored too, unlike black and white in most manga.
4/ They are free? i dont know korean and i have no clue how the system works but i get free access to korean original scans without having to make a registered account on anywebsite is just incredible. Despite how all the anti scanlation manga and anime pulling in japan, webtoons have found a way to sell themselves among the global fans.
OK, if you are still not convinced, dont listen to me and go read them yourself.
http://www.mangafox.com/search/genres/Webtoons/?advopts=1&genres[Webtoons]=1&sort=views&order=za
My own favorite:
1/Nobleless: ever wonder how the sc2 korean pro got his name? it is from THIS webtoon. The series is about vampire in modern world but hold your thought if you are thinking about twilight bc its nothing like that! after reading the first "season"(arc) of the webtoon, i decided to skip everything and spent all day finish the next 2 seasons (season 3 is ending soon) beacuse its really good. The art style is a bit similar to bleach but dont let it block you from such awesome stories and battle :D. Ranked 14th on mangafox, it has 9,211,801 monthly views.
2/ God of Highschool(GOH): brandnew series came out weekly on friday for the past 2 months or so. Fighting material art type of story which is my favorite. This is also my first time reading a webtoons and it just blown my mind how the scrolling effect could make the story much much better on paper. The points of view the artist decided to describe the movements in this series is quite new but when it goes with the color and the scrolling effect, everything becomes a great combination that you wont find in any normal manga. Strongly recommended you check out the korean source since the scanlation is pretty slow, you dont really need to know korean to follow a fighting comic anyway
3/Crepuscule: another story about vampire but its more like about a magical world where vampire, ghost, zombie, succubus live together forever happy with vampire is the top class. The series is new so i want to give it time. It has lots of potential.
there are a tons of new series that im also trying to follow but i wont put them here since i dont know if they are good or not. find it out yourself :D
ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Peaceㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ