How Naver’s Blog and Cafe Sticker Market Works—and Why It’s Growing

Read enough posts on Naver Blog and you start to notice the same pattern. The writer is the same person, but at the end of nearly every sentence, a laughing rabbit, a crying cat and a clapping bear take turns appearing.

These characters may look like decoration, but they are actually small digital products. Someone creates them, Naver and OGQ handle review and distribution, and users pay to choose the emotion they need.

The Naver Blog and Cafe sticker market is not simply a collection of cute illustrations. It is a marketplace built around creators, a platform and users.

Naver OGQ Market launched on May 2, 2018. At the time, Naver and OGQ said they were building a marketplace where people could buy and sell not only stickers but also images, videos, audio files and fonts for decorating their posts.

The companies initially planned to make these assets available for use in Naver Blog posts, then expand their reach to comments, TalkTalk and other services. According to Naver’s official announcement, OGQ had 8 million creators worldwide at the time.

The direction was clear from the start. Naver was not going to create every sticker itself. Instead, it would let users deploy creator-uploaded content across Naver’s services.

That model was also connected to Naver’s 7.5 billion won investment in OGQ in 2017. At the time, OGQ reported 3.5 million artists, 1.6 billion cumulative content downloads and more than 30 million monthly content uses. Those figures came from materials Naver released when it announced the investment.

But those numbers should not be read as current sales figures for Naver Blog stickers. They covered the OGQ platform as a whole. A large headline number does not show every part of the market.

How stickers made their way onto Naver

From a user’s perspective, the process is simple. While writing a post, they tap the sticker button, choose an image they like, and either download it for free or pay for it.

For creators, several steps come first:

• Prepare the sticker files and title.
• Register them with OGQ Creator Studio.
• Pass the review process and begin selling.
• Monitor sales and fan responses.
• Request payment according to the applicable rules.

OGQ’s official creator guide separates tools for content management, earnings management, sales tracking and fan management. In other words, creators do not simply collect money after a sale. They also get a dashboard showing which content sold and in which marketplace.

When a sticker sells well, it does not simply mean the drawing is attractive. It means several things worked together: the title was searchable, the sticker was genuinely useful in a blog post, and the creator’s name was memorable.

What you see on Naver Blog and Cafe is only the visible edge of the market

Today’s Naver OGQ Market popularity charts include products named after characters as well as stickers that spell out their intended use, such as “restaurant review,” “sponsored-content disclosure” and “blog decoration.” The charts are calculated from sales and views recorded on the day or during the previous 24 hours, and display data from only the most recent six months.

That may come as a surprise. In the sticker market, the strongest products are not necessarily those featuring the most famous characters. Products that make routine tasks easier for bloggers can also have staying power.

Expressions such as “It’s delicious,” “I paid for this myself” and “Thank you for visiting” may not look like groundbreaking creative work. But users pay for tools they can reach for every time they write, rather than for decoration they will use once and discard.

The market’s basic revenue model divides sales proceeds between the creator and the platform. Under the current OGQ Market terms, creators of original content receive 50 percent at the General level, 60 percent at the Pro level and 70 percent at the Star level. Payment-processing fees and fees charged by outside distribution channels may be deducted first, and individual creators in South Korea are subject to 3.3 percent withholding tax before payment.

It would be misleading to look at those figures and think, “A creator gets 70 percent, so there must be plenty left over.” Payment costs and taxes come out of the sale price. If sales are limited, it can also take time to reach the minimum amount required to request a payout.

The minimum payout threshold for Naver OGQ Market is 30,000 won. Payout periods are calculated according to each marketplace’s designated cutoff dates, so a product sold today does not send money straight to the creator’s bank account today.

Free stickers are another part of the picture. They do not generate direct sales, but they introduce the creator and can lead users toward paid products. Treating free and paid items simply as good and bad means missing how the market actually works.

Where the money comes from—and where it goes

In materials related to OGQ released in 2024, Naver cited 6.6 million buyers of copyrighted content and 450 million pieces of content on the platform. Those figures do not refer to stickers alone, but they do show how the market has grown from a few collections of illustrations into a vast digital supply store.

This is where caution is necessary. Public data do not allow us to calculate annual sales of Naver Blog stickers or average earnings by creator. Claiming that the market “grew by several times in a few years” without the underlying data is not analysis; it is decoration.

In my view, the market’s growth is taking shape in three ways:

1. It has expanded from stickers that decorate characters to stickers that help users achieve a specific purpose in their writing.
2. Local governments and companies, as well as individual creators, are uploading promotional characters.
3. Content once used only within Naver is expanding to other sales channels and physical products.

The first shift changes what makes a product successful. A pretty expression is not enough; creators must also design for the sentence or situation in which a user will reach for the image.

With the second shift, free distribution becomes something between advertising and a product. Organizations and companies distribute free stickers to build name recognition, while users repeatedly deploy those characters on blogs and in cafes. Everyday use can sometimes leave a longer-lasting impression than an advertising slogan.

The third shift means stickers are no longer viewed as a single bundle of files. When a character used on Naver moves to other sales channels or physical products, creators can expand the situations in which it appears. Public data, however, do not allow us to compare the scale of each direction separately.

Growth shows up first in how stickers are used, not in sales

WordPress does not come with a large, built-in sticker button like Naver OGQ Market. To achieve a similar effect, site owners need to prepare images themselves, place emojis and icons where appropriate, or develop a separate design system.

There is no need to copy Naver’s approach wholesale. The key is not the characters themselves but identifying the situations that users encounter repeatedly.

A blog post may need an image welcoming visitors, while a product description may benefit from a small visual marker highlighting advantages and cautions. In a review, images that quickly convey satisfaction, recommendation or intent to return can be useful.

The lesson for WordPress operators is clear: before adding more attractive characters, identify the actions that happen most often on the site.

Stickers do not replace words. They regulate the pace of a sentence. A small expression inserted into a long passage can help readers quickly understand the writer’s attitude.

That is why rules should come before decoration when using characters on WordPress. Use the same expression for the same situation, and avoid presenting too many options at once. The stickers that sell well on Naver Blog and Cafe are built around repeated use for precisely this reason.

What this market can teach WordPress users

Q. Are Naver Blog stickers products made directly by Naver?

A. Most are created by independent creators, registered with OGQ Market and sold after going through a review process. Naver provides the space and distribution environment in which the content can be used.

Q. Can anyone make money right away by creating Naver stickers?

A. No.

The content must pass review, and revenue is generated only when sales occur. Creators must also meet the minimum payout threshold and other settlement requirements before requesting payment.

Q. Can Naver stickers be used on WordPress as they are?

A. You need to check the permitted uses and copyright terms for content sold for Naver services. Before copying a downloaded image to WordPress, confirm that the intended use is allowed.

Sources

• Naver’s official announcement of the OGQ Market launch
• Naver’s official announcement of its strategic investment in OGQ
• Naver OGQ Market popularity charts
• OGQ Creator Studio settlement guide
• OGQ Market terms of service and revenue-sharing policy

Related WordPress Plugins

SOHO SEO

DecoBlocks

LUX Content Migration

Frequently asked questions