Paik Jong-won, CEO of The Born Korea, is resuming his YouTube activities after about a year. The platform for his return is "Paik Jong Won," a YouTube channel with 5.97 million subscribers.
The Born Korea announced Monday that Paik is restarting his YouTube channel operations. The channel will focus on cooking content introducing Korean recipes and cooking methods. The company said the channel aims to promote Korean food culture to domestic viewers and make Korean cuisine more accessible to overseas viewers.
Paik effectively suspended his YouTube activities last year after becoming embroiled in various controversies. He later signaled a possible return at The Born Korea's regular shareholders' meeting in March, saying, "There is high interest in Korean cuisine abroad" and "I will introduce Korean cooking methods through YouTube."
The first content after his return is "Paik's Cuisine," his signature series. As the first menu item, he presented a recipe for "soy sauce cold noodles" targeting the early heat wave. Going forward, he plans to introduce Korean cooking methods that overseas viewers can easily follow through "K-Vibe" content alongside "Paik's Cuisine."
His existing popular content "Eating My Own Dish" will also return for a second season. The new season moves away from the previous format centered on store inspections to focus on coexistence with store owners. It will capture on video the process of developing limited menus using local specialties and launching them in actual stores.
In addition to Paik's channel, The Born Korea is newly revamping two other YouTube channels, "TBK" and "The Born NOW."
The TBK channel will operate as a platform introducing The Born Korea's overseas business and brands. It plans to present content including "TBK Recipe," which introduces ways to use global sauces, overseas B2B sauce recipe content, and "Saero Boneung," which features the use of brand menus.
The Born NOW channel will serve as a window for delivering company and brand news. The plan is to produce field stories and corporate news centered on short-form videos to expand consumer touchpoints.
Some view Paik's return to YouTube as a move to restore the brand image, which has been shaken by recent poor earnings and stock price declines.
In fact, The Born Korea's first-quarter consolidated revenue was 79.6 billion won, down 28.1% from a year earlier. The company posted an operating loss of 4.2 billion won.
The stock price has also continued its sluggish trend. As of 1:20 p.m. Monday, The Born Korea shares were trading at 16,290 won, up 1.75% from the previous trading day. This is about half the initial public offering price of 34,000 won at the time of its 2024 listing.
"Paik Jong-won's YouTube will return to its roots and focus solely on cooking content, contributing to the popularization and global expansion of Korean cuisine and coexistence using local ingredients," a The Born Korea official said. "Company-related content that was mixed in the existing Paik Jong-won channel will be separated and introduced through the TBK channel and The Born NOW channel according to their nature."
Meanwhile, The Born Korea's first-quarter consolidated revenue was 79.6 billion won, down 28.1% from a year earlier, while operating income turned to a loss of 4.2 billion won. As of 1:20 p.m. Monday, The Born Korea shares stood at 16,290 won, up 1.75% from the previous day. Compared with the IPO price of 34,000 won, this is about half.
