Woongjin ThinkBig Faces Greatest Crisis: Can It Find a Breakthrough?

After Record-High Performance, Turned to Losses... Humiliation of Becoming a Penny Stock

Triple Woes Last Year: Declining Revenue, Operating Loss, and Net Loss

Focus on Shareholder Returns and Business Restructuring Initiatives

Woongjin ThinkBig, a publishing and educational services company that once accounted for over 60% of Woongjin Group's total revenue, is now facing the greatest crisis since its founding.

According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on March 19, 2026, Woongjin ThinkBig's consolidated revenue for 2025 stood at 797.4 billion won, an 8.1% decrease from the previous year, and the company posted an operating loss of 10.5 billion won, falling into the red. This is the first time since the company was established through a spin-off of Woongjin's educational and cultural business in 2007 that it has recorded an operating loss. Net loss for the period increased to 22.7 billion won, up 14.2% from 19.9 billion won the previous year. The company’s poor performance appears to be due to a combination of factors, including last year’s withdrawal of its artificial intelligence (AI) textbook business, restructuring, and the recognition of non-operating expenses related to asset impairment.

The situation was the complete opposite just three years ago. In 2022, Woongjin ThinkBig posted consolidated revenue of 933.3 billion won, coming close to joining the “1 trillion won club.” The company supported 61.6% of Woongjin’s consolidated revenue, underpinning the group’s results and helping Woongjin recover sales of 1 trillion won for the first time in eleven years since 2011.

After hitting its peak, performance began to decline. Revenue decreased year by year, recording 890.1 billion won in 2023 and 867.2 billion won in 2024. During the same period, operating profit plummeted from 27.6 billion won to 9.2 billion won. Net profit, which was 3.1 billion won in 2022, turned into a net loss of 32.2 billion won the following year and has failed to recover since. As a result, revenue fell below the 800 billion won mark in 2025. The company’s poor performance translated into a drop in its stock price. As of the closing price on March 4, the share price had fallen to 986 won. Although it later rebounded to above 1,000 won, concerns are mounting as the price briefly entered the “penny stock” range, which is a criterion for delisting, ahead of the listing delisting system reform scheduled for July.

Yoon Seunghyun, who was appointed CEO of Woongjin ThinkBig in February last year to turn the company around, is striving to lay the foundation for a rebound. He has declared a management policy focused on shareholders and announced plans to restructure the business to prioritize profitability and enhance corporate value. On March 11, Woongjin ThinkBig’s board of directors confirmed a “Value-Up Three-Package Policy” as a medium- to long-term strategy, centering on the cancellation of treasury shares, a cash dividend, and the reduction of reserves. The company will cancel 25% (1.85 million shares) of its treasury stock and pay a cash dividend of 85 won per share. It is also pushing for a 2-for-1 reverse stock split to stabilize the share price.

The company is also accelerating its business restructuring. It plans to improve work efficiency through its AI Transformation (AX) Lab and enhance its core competitiveness by advancing personalized learning services. A Woongjin ThinkBig representative said, “This year, we will upgrade the AI functionality of Woongjin SmartAll and accelerate our entry into the B2G (business-to-government) market through BookStory.”

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