BOSS Mode: Women Driving the Future is a series spotlighting women shaping the future of games, entertainment, and tech. This entry is a sponsored interview produced via GamesBeat Studio. The GamesBeat editorial team was not involved in the production of this content.
As gaming, digital comics, and creator platforms continue to converge, brands are increasingly looking for ways to move beyond traditional advertising and become part of the communities audiences already care about. For Christine Yoo, Head of US Advertising at WEBTOON, that shift represents one of the biggest transformations happening across interactive media today.
Before joining WEBTOON, Yoo spent nearly a decade helping grow LANEIGE into a globally recognized beauty brand, focusing on storytelling, partnerships, and cultural relevance for younger audiences. Today, she works at the intersection of fandom culture, creators, gaming IP, and advertising, helping brands rethink how they connect with audiences through community participation rather than one-way messaging.
In this edition of BOSS Mode, Yoo discusses her transition into the creator economy, lessons learned from collaborations with gaming franchises like Monster Hunter, and why she believes “community is the new reach” for the future of interactive media.
Can you tell us about your career journey and the experiences that led you to your current role as Head of US WEBTOON Advertising?
Yoo: My career has always centered around understanding communities and building brands that people genuinely connect with. I spent almost 10 years at AMOREPACIFIC, a major beauty company in Korea, growing the brand LANEIGE during a period when the brand was rapidly growing globally. A big part of my work was figuring out how to make a Korean beauty brand feel culturally relevant to younger global audiences, not just through marketing campaigns, but through storytelling, partnerships, and community-building.
After a decade dedicated to beauty, I felt ready for a new challenge. I realized what excited me most wasn’t just the product itself, but the emotional connection and fandom that forms around brands and content. That’s what drew me to WEBTOON. WEBTOONis incredibly unique because it isn’t just another entertainment platform – it is a highly engaged global community where creators and fans are actively shaping culture together in real time.
Joining WEBTOON also gave me the opportunity to help brands think differently about storytelling. Instead of traditional ads focused purely on reach or impressions, I became interested in how brands could authentically engage with passionate fandoms and creator-driven communities. That shift into the creator economy really changed my perspective. WEBTOON’s scale made that shift feel real in a way few platforms could. With about 160 million monthly active users and over $2.7 billion paid out to creators over the past five years, the creator economy here is not simply a trend to talk about, it is a dynamic IP & Creator Ecosystem of opportunities for creators. I saw firsthand that the future of advertising is becoming part of the communities people already care deeply about.
Today, as Head of US WEBTOON Advertising, I focus on building that bridge between global brands, creators, and fandom culture – especially helping brands understand how to connect with younger audiences in a way that feels authentic, culturally relevant, and emotionally resonant.
What has been your BOSS Moment — a time when you felt you truly stepped into your power as a leader in interactive media?
Yoo: I think my biggest “BOSS Moment” has been realizing that creating something completely new takes much more than just having a good idea. When there’s no existing blueprint, it requires persistence, cross-functional alignment, and a lot of trust-building to bring people along with the vision. Especially in advertising and interactive media, the easiest path is often to stay with familiar formats – so stepping up and pushing something new forward can be uncomfortable, but also incredibly meaningful.
One experience that really reflects this was the Capcom x WEBTOON Monster Hunter Wilds collaboration. Capcom had a clear goal around deeper fandom engagement, and I saw an opportunity to address it in a way WEBTOON hadn’t done before – through a community-driven creator contest that invited fans and creators to tap into their creativity and tell their own stories in the Monster Hunter universe. I proposed and led the concept from ideation through execution, working across internal teams, Capcom, and creators to bring it to life. What made it meaningful wasn’t just delivering a successful campaign, but helping establish a new model for how a global gaming IP and creator platform can co-create with a community.
What challenges have you faced along the way, and what lessons would you share with women who are building their careers in gaming and interactive platforms?
Yoo: In gaming, tech, and marketing, the biggest challenge I’ve seen is that while everyone says they want “new ideas,” most people still default to what’s safe and proven. So real innovation often gets slowed down by hesitation and risk aversion, especially when you’re working with global brands or established IPs. I’ve always been more drawn to trying the things that haven’t been done before – even if it means more uncertainty or complexity. I tend to push for new formats, new ways of working with creators, and new ways for brands to show up in communities. It’s not always the easiest path, but it’s where I’ve learned the most and where the most meaningful outcomes have come from.
The lesson I’d share is that progress does not come from waiting for perfect certainty. The Monster Hunter Wilds collaboration is a good example of that. Nobody had a blueprint for how a global gaming IP and a creator platform should co-create with a fandom community. We built that model by doing it. For women in this industry especially, I think there is real power in choosing the harder, less defined path because that is often where you end up shaping what comes next.
Do you have a hobby in gaming or digital comics and how have they helped shape the person you are today?
Yoo: What I’ve always admired about gaming and digital comics is the creativity it takes to build the entire universe that people can emotionally step into and grow with. Spending time on WEBTOON itself, reading across genres from romance to fantasy to action, has given me a much deeper appreciation for what creators are actually building and what fans are actually looking for. That firsthand experience as a reader shapes how I think about brand integrations, because I approach it as a fan first. Working in this space has given me a deep respect for how much imagination, discipline, and craft go into world-building at scale – where storytelling becomes something interactive, and audiences actively participate in shaping meaning. It has influenced how I think about my own work, especially in understanding that the strongest brand experiences are not standalone moments, but part of larger ecosystems people can connect with and return to over time.
If you could share one insight with decision-makers in the gaming and tech industries, what would it be?
Yoo: My core insight is that community is the new reach. For years, decision-makers focused solely on how many people saw an ad, but that mindset is shifting. The real question today is how does a brand earn trust and become part of the communities people actually care about. This is especially true with Gen-Z, who don’t respond to one-way messaging. They engage with brands that feel participatory, authentic, and embedded in culture rather than placed on top of it.
For gaming and tech, the shift is to stop acting like a guest trying to buy attention, and instead become a meaningful participant in the ecosystem. When brands support creators, respect fandom culture, and build with communities rather than at them, the impact goes beyond reach or impressions. It becomes real belonging and long-term relevance.
Looking ahead, what trends or opportunities in interactive media excite you the most, and where do you see yourself making the biggest impact in shaping the future?
Yoo: From my perspective, the most meaningful part of this evolution is helping make it actually work in practice. Partnerships like our collaboration with Warner Bros. Animation to develop animated series from WEBTOON originals, or the way gaming IPs like Monster Hunter Wilds and Overwatch 2 are extending their universes through webcomics, show what is possible when you build with creators rather than around them. I want to help ensure WEBTOON is not just part of that shift, but a core driver of how global franchises are built, expanded, and kept culturally alive across every format.