Ilbe Storehouse [Yonhap]
Ilbe Storehouse [Yonhap]

Ilbe Storehouse, the online community notorious for mockery and hate-filled posts, is struggling to stay afloat after a sharp drop in advertising revenue, according to industry sources. Its operators have appealed to members for donations and signaled plans to introduce paid services.

The Ilbe operations team announced Monday that "advertising placements have declined significantly in recent months, making it difficult to run the site stably on ad revenue alone."

The team said it had long relied on advertising income to cover server costs and development and maintenance expenses, but that falling revenue had made those costs increasingly difficult to bear.

It added: "It is hard to say how much longer we can continue under the current circumstances," and noted that "the operations staff are working without pay."

The team has published its bank account number and is asking members to contribute. "Donations are entirely voluntary, and posts, comments and recommendations are also a great help," it said, while noting that "every donation sent makes a real difference to running the site and maintaining the servers."

The team is also pursuing a paid membership tier that would offer subscribers exclusive benefits related to site use. It said it plans to build a system allowing members to check their own cumulative donation totals as well as those of other members.

Ilbe has drawn controversy on multiple occasions. The site has long faced criticism for leading mockery and ridicule on social issues — including staging a binge-eating protest in front of families bereaved by the Sewol ferry disaster and posting content denigrating the victims.

Political circles are discussing regulation of online platforms like Ilbe. President Lee Jae-myung directly named the site last May, saying the country should "publicly debate and seriously examine allowing, under strict conditions, measures such as punishment for mockery and hate speech, punitive damages, and the closure of and fines against sites like Ilbe that tolerate or encourage such content."

Legislative action is also taking shape. In June, Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Hun-gi introduced a bill widely dubbed the "Ilbe ban law." The legislation would allow authorities to order the removal of posts, block access and restrict monetization for sites that repeatedly distribute or fail to remove hateful and derisive content, with fines or forced closure for those that do not comply.


bbo@heraldcorp.com