Startup FastView, which has attracted 12.5 billion won in cumulative investments and reported an annual revenue of 33 billion won, has been confirmed to have posted defamatory content about artists affiliated with the country's largest entertainment company, HYBE, through multiple YouTube channels.
The company, which identifies itself as a content tech corporation, was designated as a "baby unicorn" by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups in 2022, receiving 300 million won in support. Last year, it also made the list as a "baby unicorn plus" corporation, which provides an additional maximum of 300 million won to companies showing significant growth among those completed their projects.
A baby unicorn is defined as a corporation that has the potential to grow into a unicorn (a startup valued at over 1 trillion won) and has accumulated investment from the private sector amounting to 2 billion to 10 billion won.
Recently, a well-known cyber locker YouTube channel, "Taldeoksuyongsu," was caught spreading false videos about Jang Won-young and BTS, prompting civil and criminal actions. There are concerns that the government is wasting taxpayers' money without sufficient verification or oversight of startups.
According to the Seoul Central District Court on the 5th, HYBE recently submitted a correction application regarding the parties involved in the damages lawsuit it filed on August 30 of last year, specifying "Defendant 1," which appears to refer to FastView.
Last year, HYBE and its affiliates, Belift Lab and Source Music, filed a damages lawsuit seeking 280 million won against seven YouTube channels for defaming their affiliated artists.
The targeted channels include "Cute Rabbit Jjang," "EnterPick," "People Box," "Da Issue," "NewJeansFam," "Issue Tan," and "Wangjam Issue."
This channel claimed that ILLIT, a girl group under Belift Lab, plagiarized content from other artists, while also spreading malicious falsehoods about members of LE SSERAFIM, a group under Source Music.
Examples of this content include: "The reason XXXX is entangled with Danworld," "The reason XXXX XXX suddenly became unpopular," "Allegations of endless song plagiarism by XXX," and "The current situation of XXXX caught up in a controversy over cultural appropriation."
In response, HYBE and others sought to identify the creators of the false videos by applying to a U.S. District Court in Northern California in September of last year for permission to collect evidence for foreign legal procedures against Google, which owns YouTube. This allowed them to specify that FastView operated the People Box and Da Issue channels among the seven.
FastView has a history of disseminating false information regarding Hyundai Motor through its former channel, Autopost, leading to civil and criminal penalties against the company and an individual identified only as A. In July 2020, A, a former editor-in-chief of Autopost, posted a video on the Autopost channel accusing Hyundai Motor of wrongful dismissal and improper operational practices based on false reports from an employee dispatched from a partner company, identified as B.
FastView, which started its channel producing economic and trend content for office workers in 2015, was established as a corporation in April 2018. It states that it offers an artificial intelligence (AI) solution that maximizes traffic and can monetize by distributing differentiated content across various channels.
Recently, it has also established a corporation in Tokyo, Japan, entering overseas markets where demand for K-content is high. The company has attracted a total of 12.5 billion won in investments from firms such as Finman Asset Management, Partners Investment, DSC Investment, SparkLabs Ventures, and KB Capital. It claimed that it recorded an annual revenue of 33 billion won and an operating profit of 1.5 billion won last year, achieving its first profit since its establishment.
A representative of FastView stated, "The channel creates and shares shorts (short videos) based on content from social issues or communities, and there was no intention to attack or defame artists from HYBE or its affiliated companies, making this a surprising situation. We are fully cooperating with all investigations, and once the results are out, we will formally express the company's position."
He added, "Involved in the community are not only the company’s representatives but also past representatives, with false information spread leading to defamation of character, and we plan to take legal action in response to this."
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups noted, "Baby unicorns are operated as a program for startups evaluated for growth potential in the private sector that have attracted a certain amount of investment, following expert reviews for support funding. From 2020 to 2024, a total of 300 companies went through the baby unicorn program, and after the funds were disbursed, we track performance through financial statements, but we do not keep track of individual issues like lawsuits."