Freechal Founder Jeon Je-wan: The Fall Following the Legend of 10 Million Members and the 3,000 Won Monetization

Broadcast on SBS Thursday at 10:20 PM! Jang Hyun-sung, Jang Sung-kyu, Jang Do Yeon

‘The Story of the Day That Biting Its Own Tail’

Jeon Je-wan, the founder of ‘Freechal’ who shook up South Korea's IT industry

Highlighting the turbulent life of the giant who led 10 million members!

The ‘Liu Bei of the IT world’ who produced representatives of NAVER and Kakao, the birth of an Avengers squad

Freechal vs Cyworld, the tragic fate decided by ‘3,000 won’!

Jeon Je-wan's 'shocking current status' as a pension cleaner... Jeon Je-wan shares his feelings: “It is because I was lacking”

Listeners Tony An X Han So-eun X Kim Hyo-jin take the stage!

Continuous amazement at the Freechal venture legend: “Changing the world with Freedom and Challenge”

- SBS ‘Kkokkomu’ Tony An admires Jeon Je-wan's talent recruitment, saying, “His ability to recruit talent is comparable to Liu Bei in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms”

- SBS ‘Kkokkomu’ Kim Hyo-jin on the 'dot-com venture craze': “I realized that we can connect harmoniously without meeting in person”

SBS ‘Kkokkomu’ revealed the turbulent life of Jeon Je-wan, who wrote a first-generation venture legend and left a mark on the South Korean IT industry, covering his success, downfall, and current state.

The episode of ‘The Story of the Day That Biting Its Own Tail’ (directed by Ahn Yoon-tae, Lee Keun-byeol, Moon Chi-young / hereinafter ‘Kkokkomu’) broadcast on the 17th featured listeners H.O.T. Tony An, actress Han So-eun, and comedian Kim Hyo-jin, who joined to explore the life of Jeon Je-wan, from the center of the dot-com venture craze with Freechal to his ultimate frustrations.

In the late 1990s, in the Yongsan Electronics Market in Seoul, Jensen Huang of NVIDIA, the company that would later shake the world, was working on the ground to sell graphics cards. At that time, Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee invited Jensen Huang to Korea by presenting a vision to connect the entire country with high-speed internet, and after witnessing Korea's PC bang culture, Jensen Huang became convinced of the future of the IT industry. Following the StarCraft craze and the era of PC communication, as high-speed internet spread in 1998, a hot dot-com venture craze swept through South Korea. At the center of this was Freechal founder Jeon Je-wan.

A graduate of Seoul National University who joined Samsung C&T Corporation, Jeon Je-wan showed early prominence in the IT field, such as digitizing Samsung Electronics' personnel system. However, during the 1997 IMF financial crisis, he left Samsung and established the venture company Freedom and Challenge. He built a Silicon Valley-style organization by recruiting outstanding talents, including the former Kakao co-CEO Joh Su-yong, who was 26 at the time. Regarding this, Tony An expressed admiration, saying, “It is not easy to gather such great talents in such a small company; his talent recruitment ability is comparable to Liu Bei of the Three Kingdoms.”

The community platform Freechal, launched on January 1, 2000, showed explosive growth. Under the goal of creating online meeting spaces just as people gathered to communicate offline, it surpassed 1 million members within three months of opening, driven by a sophisticated UI designed by Joh Su-yong, unlimited capacity, and an all-free policy. Subsequently, about 1.1 million self-sustaining communities were formed, and the number of members exceeded 10 million. After attracting investment from the representative American company GE Capital, Freechal established itself as South Korea's representative IT platform.

However, behind the success lay massive deficits. As members increased, the costs for maintaining servers and hardware grew like a snowball, and with investment funds running dry and the dot-com bubble bursting, it became difficult to attract additional investment. Driven to the edge, Jeon Je-wan implemented a ‘3,000 won monthly fee’ for community creators despite fierce opposition. Since there was a strong perception that internet services should be free at that time, the backlash from users was intense, and the social impact was so large that debates broke out in the National Assembly. Ultimately, the number of communities plummeted from 1.1 million to 400,000.

Cyworld seized this opportunity. Cyworld, which introduced Mini-hompy in 2001, absorbed a large number of users who left during the Freechal monetization wave by declaring itself free. Creating a craze with 'Ilchon' connections, BGM, and cyber currency 'Dotori', Cyworld grew into a national SNS with 25 million members, and the era of Freechal came to an end.

To make matters worse, in December 2002, during the process of raising funds to prevent a liquidity crisis, Jeon Je-wan was urgently arrested on charges of fraudulent payment of stock subscription and embezzlement of over 12 billion won, and was sentenced to two years in prison. He attempted a comeback after his release, but Freechal eventually disappeared into history amidst the rapidly changing flow of the times.

Later, in 2016, Jeon Je-wan was appointed as the representative of his former rival Cyworld and attempted data recovery and a comeback by investing more than 30 billion won, but he faced the tragedy of being punished for unpaid wages as he experienced management difficulties once again.

The entrepreneur who opened the era of South Korean IT and wrote a venture legend is currently living a life of emptying out the splendor and wounds of past days as a pension cleaner in Yangyang, Gangwon-do. Jeon Je-wan shared his feelings, stating, “My life has reached a point of near ruin, so I am cleaning here to forget my sorrows.” In response, Han So-eun expressed her sadness, saying, “It is bitter. But it is because of such trial and error that we can now live enjoying IT comfortably.”

Although the challenge of one individual ended in tragedy, the talents he gathered and the trial and error he experienced at the time became an important foundation for South Korea to leap forward as a global IT powerhouse.

Reflecting on the meaning the online world of that era left for us today, Tony An recalled, “It changed the world,” and Kim Hyo-jin expressed her gratitude, saying, “It made me realize that we can connect harmoniously with anyone without meeting in person.” Han So-eun shared her thoughts, saying, “Just like the name of the first company he created, he left the meaning of Freedom and Challenge itself.”

After the broadcast, various SNS and communities saw heated reactions such as, “The IT story continuing from PC communication to the dot-com era and smartphones is interesting,” “Freechal is a real memory,” “Seeing Jeon Je-wan's current status makes me think a lot,” “It seems like even if it's hard, one must follow the flow of the times to develop,” and “Challenge and innovation are truly difficult.”

Meanwhile, ‘Kkokkomu’ is a program where three storytellers study on their own and deliver what they feel to their respective ‘story friends’ one-on-one in the most everyday spaces, and it is broadcast every Thursday at 10:20 PM on SBS.

Copyright © SBS & SBSi. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction, redistribution, or use for AI training is prohibited.

◆ At a Glance

· Issuing Organization: SBS

· Category: The Story of the Day That Biting Its Own Tail

· Distribution: September 18, 16:09

Source: SBS Press Release

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