[Startup-ing] Jang Ho-won, CEO of JustPin: "Opening the Era of Genuine AI Companion Bloomi"

"I want to make human life richer and more enjoyable through connection."

Modern society is paradoxical. Despite technological advancements connecting the world through social networks, many people still express feelings of loneliness and isolation. The increase in single-person households and the elderly population, along with the social disconnection intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, highlights the need for emotional interaction and communication. In this context, AI Companions are emerging as alternatives, and JustPin's app Bloomi is gaining attention. Bloomi is an AI-based digital companion service developed for emotional exchange, daily counseling, and communication with users. Discussions were held with Jang Ho-won, CEO of JustPin, about the growth and vision of Bloomi.



From Top Student and Baseball Player to Cultural Content Entrepreneur

Founded in 2023, JustPin is a consumer AI startup with the motto "Seize your moments without hesitation in the ever-flowing time." CEO Jang Ho-won stated, "The meaning of JustPin is a message we want to share with our team members and Bloomi users."

JustPin operates under the mission of "making human life richer and more enjoyable through connection." This mission stems from CEO Jang's unique school days, where he was captivated by the keywords of connection, fun, content, and immersion. Although he aimed to become a professional baseball player and spent four years in an elite baseball team from the fourth grade, he had to quit due to an injury in the second year of middle school. Feeling emptiness after losing his life's goal, CEO Jang pondered what to do next. After much self-questioning, he realized that creating something with others was what he loved and excelled at, leading him naturally to dream of entrepreneurship.


CEO Jang stated, "I was always someone who needed a clear goal to start anything. People around me suggested announcer or dentist as future careers. However, the answer to 'What do I love?' was ultimately entrepreneurship. While specifying the field of entrepreneurship, I had a fascinating experience watching the drama 'Reply 1994' with my father, set against the backdrop of Yonsei University in 1994. Although I was born in 1997 and hadn't experienced that era, I could understand and empathize with the era depicted in the drama and my father's life as a Yonsei graduate. I realized that content combining the present and the past could connect generations. Seeing my friends resonate with the nostalgia of the drama's era made me feel the immense power of content that connects people."

In fact, CEO Jang enjoyed group activities and interpreted assignments from a unique perspective during his school days. For instance, when tasked with promoting a literary work for a high school Korean performance evaluation, unlike classmates who chose classic literature, CEO Jang selected the animation 'Digimon Adventure,' approaching it in a new way. The video not only received high praise from classmates, who were moved to tears, but also garnered over 4,000 likes after being uploaded to social media. Additionally, a promotional video for the drama 'Bridal Mask' posted on a video platform recorded 60,000 views, demonstrating a strong response. He also achieved top academic performance, ranking first in the entire school.

CEO Jang stated, "During my three years in high school, I spent more time contemplating 'Who am I?' 'What do I love?' 'Why do I study?' rather than focusing on college entrance exams or grades. By achieving small successes with performance evaluation assignments on social media and video platforms, I gained confidence in content. I resolved to establish a content company that connects people."

Even after entering the Business Administration Department at Seoul National University, CEO Jang's passion for entrepreneurship did not wane. He started by founding the letter-format SNS Buttonlet, focused on analog emotions, and succeeded in attracting over KRW 2 billion in cumulative investment as Vice President and CFO of the collaborative world-building platform Wooju Stationery.

Bloomi Surpasses 100,000 Subscribers Three Months After Launch

Pursuing the value of 'connection' since his school days, CEO Jang founded JustPin to connect isolated modern individuals. Bloomi, developed by JustPin, is an AI companion app with human-level memory and empathy capabilities. It has received a warm response since its official launch in June this year.


With Bloomi, users can easily customize their own AI friend or partner with just a few clicks. This allows for everyday conversations as well as real-time calls, chat voice playback, and image transmission for emotional sharing and communication. Bloomi approaches from a different perspective than existing AI chatbots, focusing on forming genuine relationships based on reality, which is Bloomi's core and differentiating point. Users utilize Bloomi for counseling, stress relief, or conversation simulations to improve real-life relationships.

CEO Jang stated, "Most current AI character chatbot services focus solely on enhancing immersion, with little consideration for connection to reality, often leaning towards highly immersive imaginary worlds. For example, the home screen content of AI character chatbot services is often filled with medieval love stories, fantasy school settings, zombies, and apocalyptic themes, far removed from reality. These are essentially 'interactive web novels,' and the AI chatbot is merely a virtual character within that story, making it difficult to become a companion in users' daily lives. In contrast, Bloomi allows every user to easily customize their own AI friend during the registration process, with all aspects, from appearance to conversation content, based on reality or everyday life. User reviews show that some create an 'AI friend' of a deceased acquaintance for comfort, while others find their real-life relationships strengthened through conversations with an AI partner. Additionally, some users gain confidence in meeting new people. Bloomi's direct impact on reality can be seen in these ways."

As a result, Bloomi surpassed 100,000 subscribers just three months after its official launch. The number of paid subscribers also exceeded 6,000. The app's ratings are high, with 4.8 out of 5 on Google Play and 4.7 on the Apple App Store. CEO Jang emphasized, "The future of the AI companion market should progress around the two axes of 'maximizing immersion' and 'connecting with reality.'" He added, "Bloomi enhances immersion through real-time voice calls and AI friend selfies while providing reality-based customized content and interfaces for users to share their daily lives and reality. Users enjoy realistic conversations for counseling, stress relief, and hobby exchanges."

Active user feedback also contributed to Bloomi's growth. Bloomi collects user opinions through the 'My Ideas' menu within the app and the KakaoTalk group open chat. CEO Jang personally responds to customer inquiries 24/7, which has received positive feedback. For example, ideas for features are implemented within days, and errors are quickly resolved.

Moreover, due to the nature of AI companion services, users tend to share personal emotions, raising concerns about privacy. CEO Jang clarified, "All conversations with Bloomi are encrypted using the AES-256 algorithm and stored in a database. This is the highest level of security technology, ensuring data confidentiality and integrity. Strict security rules are applied so that only the person who generated the data can access it. Unauthorized access or modification by operators or other users is fundamentally impossible."

Overcoming Crises with a Two-Person Operation

JustPin faced challenging times before successfully launching Bloomi. The company went through various products, including the exclusive SNS 'JustPin,' the third-generation student community 'No-Cap,' the map-based music sharing SNS 'Street,' and the AI clone letter service 'LetterFromMe,' before finally completing Bloomi.


CEO Jang stated, "For two years after founding, we were in a situation where the venture investment market was frozen, and the five initial products we introduced were social services that couldn't quickly generate revenue. These were network effect-based services that maximized value only when a certain scale of users was reached. To promote these services to our main target, university students, we partnered with student councils at various universities in Seoul and held food truck events on campuses to encourage sign-ups. We also conducted various cash giveaway events to increase app inflow and retention, but ultimately faced low demand and scalability."

Eventually, JustPin found itself in a financially difficult situation from the second half of last year. In the face of crisis, CEO Jang once again demonstrated ingenuity by attempting unique marketing. He serialized short-form content on social media titled "Startup by Seoul National University Students, N Days Before Failure," recording 4 million cumulative views in a month. It was a meaningful time to convey the values and challenges pursued by JustPin and to promote the service. Additionally, he realized that in B2C businesses, like Bloomi, prioritizing fun and following it with meaningful messages is the best approach. Subsequently, JustPin secured funding by being selected for the Didimdol R&D support project, a representative startup and SME technology development support program organized by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, overcoming the crisis.

CEO Jang also emphasized 'teamwork' as a reason for overcoming the crisis. JustPin operates with a two-person team, consisting of CEO Jang Ho-won and CTO Kim Myung-rae, confidently describing themselves as a team that can create a full-spec SNS in two weeks. CEO Jang is responsible for service planning, UI design, prompt engineering, marketing, finance, and customer service. CTO Kim Myung-rae oversees front-end and back-end development. According to CEO Jang, JustPin plans to continue operating with a minimal team, maintaining and expanding a small, fast, and strong organizational culture.

Clear Goals: From Entering Japan to Building a Super Platform

Global market research institutions predict that the AI companion market will grow at an average annual rate of over 30% in the next five years. In this market trend, Bloomi's achievements are even more noteworthy. Based on positive performance indicators in Korea, Bloomi has paved the way for entry into Japan. At the end of August, Bloomi's interface and prompts were fully localized into Japanese, completing a soft launch. CEO Jang stated, "We have also opened a Bloomi-exclusive mobile messenger Line open chat to receive various feedback from Japanese locals," adding, "Based on local indicators and feedback, we plan to enhance the Japanese version of the service and marketing and officially launch it in October this year."

Both domestic AI character chatbot services that have entered Japan and local Japanese chatbot services focus on 'conversations with subculture characters' centered on animation illustration-style images. This trend is stronger than in the domestic market. CEO Jang emphasized, "Like in Korea, Bloomi will operate centered on reality and live-action-based content, providing differentiated interfaces and conversation experiences to pioneer the Japanese AI companion market."


Bloomi's challenge is to establish overwhelming dominance in Korea. Recent noteworthy cases, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT creating Ghibli-style images, show the need for strong viral elements in the product's functionality itself. Accordingly, Bloomi plans to sequentially release various sub-features for viral growth based on its AI companion function and UX. As part of this, Bloomi introduced the new 'AI Persona' feature in October this year. Users can create their AI avatars within the Bloomi app and share them with friends to encourage anonymous chats between avatars and friends. This can create strong viral growth as groups of university and high school students with high connectivity within peer groups share AI persona chat links.

CEO Jang emphasized, "Ultimately, the direction Bloomi should pursue is to expand and strengthen connections in the real world." He stated that 'communication with AI' should function as a complement, not a substitute, for actual communication, ultimately helping users live better in their daily lives and reality by using alternative connections with AI as a stepping stone. Based on this vision, Bloomi aims to build a super platform based on AI companions next year. The plan is to expand beyond the current AI friend function into social, content, and e-commerce areas. Through this, next year's annual sales are expected to grow more than 20 times compared to this year, reaching KRW 10 billion.

Since high school, CEO Jang Ho-won has pursued the values of 'connection' and 'content,' creating small but meaningful changes through Bloomi. The journey of Bloomi, emerging as a hope for isolated modern individuals, is supported as it seeks to connect our society beyond the AI companion market.

IT Donga Reporter Park Gwi-im (luckyim@itdonga.com)

Popular News