[Start人] 6 Million Cumulative Subscribers... University Students' Platform 'Everytime'

Kim Han, CEO of Binu Labs, "Expanding Business into Research and Other Fields"

Kim Han, CEO of Binu Labs

There is a service that every college student in South Korea uses. As of December last year, the number of enrolled university students in the country was 2.87 million, and the monthly active users (MAU) of this service also reached 2.87 million, with a cumulative number of registered users hitting 6 million. This means almost every college student uses it. However, those who are far removed from their twenties and college life ask, "What is that?" Perhaps knowing about this service is a barometer of being a "kkondae" (a term for an older person who is out of touch), and it is none other than 'Everytime,' the largest college student platform in South Korea.

Although young college students use it, it is a mistake to think it is a recently trendy service. Everytime first appeared in 2009, preceding the launch of KakaoTalk in 2010. Since then, Everytime has grown for 13 years focusing solely on college students. The class of 2009, who first created and used Everytime, have now entered their 30s. Narrowing the gap with today's college students has become a challenge for them. Facing this challenge, we met with Kim Han from Vinulabs to hear how Everytime has grown and where it aims to go.

CEO Kim said, "During the COVID-19 period, seeing college students struggling because they couldn't go to school, I thought there would be many business areas where we could play a role," adding, "We are reviewing new businesses in education and research." Vinulabs currently operates not only Everytime, a community-based college student platform, but also commerce services like 'Student Welfare Store,' a career platform called 'CampusPick,' and a high school entrance exam support app 'University Encyclopedia.' Based on these, they plan to expand their business into areas such as research next year.

The biggest reason CEO Kim is considering the research business is that he is no longer a college student. He said, "My biggest concern is drifting away from college students," and added, "I spend a lot of time understanding how to comprehend college students, what their needs are, and what trends they follow. We need to keep antennas up for even minor changes." This concern led to the research field as a business model. CEO Kim explained, "We wanted to gain insights about college students," and said, "We can conduct research commissioned for marketing business plans and create touchpoints between brands and college students."

Kim Han, CEO of Binu Labs

The strength that allows Vinulabs to pursue full-fledged growth by expanding into research and other areas comes from the competitiveness of the platform it has built so far. The flagship service, Everytime, started as a timetable program and steadily evolved into a community service. Initially, Everytime was a PC application, developed into a web service in 2010, and launched as a mobile app in 2011. At that time, there were no college timetable apps, and the user base steadily grew, leading to the company's founding in 2015. The timetable app's transformation into a community-centered service also happened around this time. CEO Kim said, "At first, it was mainly communication for exchanging lecture evaluations and necessary information by class, but it gradually developed into a comprehensive school community."

The advantage of Everytime is that it is anonymous but based on trust. It supports 397 university campuses nationwide, and users must verify their identity with a student ID or acceptance letter to join. Thanks to this process, there is a consensus that students from the same school post relevant and trustworthy content. The creation of interest-based boards is also active, with more than 43,000 created. Official boards have also been established by student councils and other groups within schools for communication.

While college student communities are possible on other platforms, why do students gather on Everytime? CEO Kim explained that it is because they create optimized functions focused on college life, such as timetables, lecture evaluations, bookstores, and GPA calculators. He said, "For example, about 2.3 million used textbooks have been traded through the college textbook secondhand trading feature," explaining, "The bond between seniors and juniors passing down books has weakened, and this has played a role in replacing that."

Vinulabs has grown so far without any special investment. It was not that they deliberately avoided investment. When investment was needed, the market was not favorable to community platforms. Vinulabs put all its resources into survival, creating a structure that generates revenue through advertising and commerce. Based on a solid user base, this structure aims for a transaction volume of 200 billion KRW in commerce this year, with advertising expected to grow twice as much as the previous year.

Having built a solid foundation, Vinulabs is now focusing on talent recruitment to achieve full-scale growth this year. The number of employees, which was 30 last year, has more than doubled to 70. The hiring goal for this year is to increase the staff to 100. CEO Kim emphasized, "This recruitment is to create valuable services for college students," and added, "College students are the future generation but always face difficulties in employment and other areas. Through our business, we want to bridge the gap between college students and the world."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.