[Content Commerce] 10 Years of Experience as a Science Reporter... "I Reached 10 Million Views"

Science YouTube Channel 'Gwahak Dream' CEO Kim Jeonghoon
Former Youth Science Magazine Reporter... Strength in Creating Easy-to-Understand Content
Entered Commerce Business by Producing T-Shirts, Eco Bags, etc.

"To me, science is a 'story.' It is a theory widely accepted today after various hypotheses and counterarguments about a phenomenon have been repeated. Instead of simply listing information like an encyclopedia, I think the secret to its popularity lies in reflecting the nature of science as a story well in the videos."

With over 1.07 million YouTube subscribers, the popular science creator 'Gwahak Dream' is a channel that delivers a wide range of scientific knowledge from biology and earth science to physics in an easy-to-understand way. A distinctive strength of the channel is its detailed explanations of the history of science and scientists related to the topics, while entertainingly depicting characters or organisms with eyes, nose, mouth, and speech bubbles as if watching an 'educational comic.'

Kim Jung-hoon, CEO of Science Dream.
Photo by Cafe24

This strength was born thanks to the career of CEO Kim Jeong-hoon, who runs the Gwahak Dream channel. After majoring in science education (life sciences), Kim worked as a journalist for a youth science magazine for 10 years. Since it was a science magazine for teenagers, the focus was on creating easy-to-understand content. Kim launched the YouTube channel in 2019, which quickly grew to surpass 100,000 subscribers in about a year, leading him to become a full-time creator.

Kim explained, "When I first started YouTube, science content covering astronomy and physics was popular, but there was little content related to biology, so I judged it to be a blue ocean." In fact, a recent video about the relatively unfamiliar prehistoric fish 'Sakabambaspis' summarized various topics in 11 minutes, including ▲ fossil excavation process ▲ origin of the name ▲ related papers ▲ restoration process, and even the evolutionary history of fish bones, surpassing 300,000 views in about a week. Other videos with millions of views include 'The Scientific Reason Why Cannibalism Is Not Allowed' (11.82 million views) and 'The Reason for the Extinction of Megalodon' (5.73 million views).

Kim said, "Writing video scripts was similar to writing magazine articles, which was helpful, and my experience designing cover images helped when creating YouTube thumbnails. Over 10 years of covering the scientific community, I communicated with scientists and used interviews with them in my content to enhance its quality."

Gwahak Dream recently ventured into commerce as well. Using Cafe24’s 'YouTube Shopping Dedicated Store' feature, they opened an online store tailored for YouTube. Through the dedicated store, science-related products are displayed in the channel’s 'Store Tab' and individual content. By developing and selling products that reflect Gwahak Dream’s personality?such as graphic T-shirts featuring a cute depiction of the dinosaur 'Dimetrodon,' eco-bags illustrating human evolution, and trilobite fossil air fresheners?the store sold half of its prepared stock within two weeks, gaining significant popularity.

Kim said, "Through the YouTube Shopping Dedicated Store, we can expose products on the YouTube channel and content, providing an easy gateway for people to purchase them. I think it is a service worth recommending for creators who want to expand their brand."

Gwahak Dream continues to take on new challenges not only in commerce but also in content. They conduct live streaming called 'Science Night.' In these live broadcasts, Kim appears directly in the content and interacts with subscribers in real time. Kim said, "We identified that the main audience in their 20s and 30s prefer long-form communication, so we conduct live streaming accordingly. In the future, I want to develop the channel into one that offers various content like an audiovisual science magazine, including interviews, explorations, and introductions to scientific knowledge."

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