YLAB

**YLAB** is a webtoon studio in South Korea to create webtoons. It was founded by Inwan Youn in 2010.

## Background

As stated, it was founded in 2010 by Inwan Youn, the company celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2020. It currently have 115 employees as of April 2023. Its current operating profit is 294.13 million won and Net Income is 322.21 million won as of 2022.

## Details & Production

As the work production uses the story/drawing team division system, there are two people per work usually (author & illustrator).

The majority of story writers are exclusive writers. An exclusive writer can only publish the company's works in series, and individual works are not possible. However, unlike exclusive authors, there are individual artists, and it is said that it is a form of contract for each work. Euicheol Shin, an author who serializes The Age of Barbarous, is such an example. As for the illustrators, most of the established artists are in charge, and very occasionally, new artists are in charge.

It is also commissioned to produce illustrations/animations for corporate promotion. In addition to be in charge of publishing books such as the YLAB Encyclopedia.

As for the copyright of the characters in YLab's worldview, the author and illustrator does not have the character rights. This is because a character cannot appear in multiple works if only the author or illustrator owns the copyright for the character in the first place. However, in the case of the work itself, it seems that the author/illustrator and the company jointly own it. During the webtoon hiatus and work preparation period, it was announced that a monthly salary was paid for the stable life of both authors and illustrators.

## History

**Source**

1. Was founded on November 19, 2010.
2. In July 2015, "*Value Invest Korea"* invested 3 billion won.
3. In November 2015, **YLab Academy** was established.
4. In December 2015, the first webtoon universe, Superstring , was announced.
5. In December 2016, 4:33 ,invested in YLab.
6. On May 24, 2017, the label Pink Jam, was established.
7. On August 3, 2018, a venture capital alliance including LB Investment, POSCO Technology Investment, and Wooshin Venture Investment invested 8.5 billion won.
8. On June 27, 2019, at the <2019 Content Industry Forum> the Superstring Strategy was presented.
9. On February 24, 2020, Naver Webtoon (Company) acquired **a 12.6% stake in YLab for 5.3 billion won.**
10. In June 2020, Naver Webtoon (Company) acquired 100% of the shares. It was liquidated three years later.
11. On December 14, 2020, the official Instagram was officially opened.
12. On December 12, 2020, YLab attended the <2020 Gyeonggi Webtoon Conference> and announced YLab's future strategy.
13. On February 3, 2021, the second webtoon universe, Bluestring, was officially announced.
14. On February 16, 2021, the label Elimona was launched.
15. On March 29, 2021, Studio Dragon & YLab announced that they had signed a business cooperation agreement focusing on exclusive rights to co-produce videos for Superstring IP.
16. In July 2021, CJ E&M acquired **a 4% stake in YLab for 3 billion won.**
17. In October 2021, Pearl Abyss acquired **a 12% stake in YLab for 5 billion won.**
18. On November 8, 2021, the third webtoon universe, Red String, was announced.
19. Around November 2021, we collaborated with PUBG Corporation. With the PUBG Universe .
20. On November 22, 2021, YLab Store opened.
21. On April 14, 2022, the company's brand color changed from dark red-purple to orange.
22. On April 21, 2022, we launched ‘YLab Us’, a subsidiary specializing in translation. #
23. On November 10, 2022, YLab's IP utilization strategy will be announced at the <2022 Content IP Industry Exhibition>.
24. On June 20, 2023, the fourth webtoon universe, Goldstring , was announced.
25. On July 4, 2023, the IPO corporate briefing session was held.
26. On July 20, 2023, YLab was listed on KOSDAQ.
27. On December 21, 2023, Bandai invested 13.7 billion won in YLab Studios. The investment method is to acquire 28,000 shares (35.9%) of Y Lab Studios through a paid-in capital increase through a 3-party allocation. And Bandai and YLab Studios will jointly plan and produce webtoon works.

## Shareholders

As of September 2023.

1. Inwan Youn - 17.81%
2. Naver Webtoon - 9.67%
3. CJ E&M - 9.67%
4. LB Promising Venture Industry Fund - 3.76%
5. Pearl Abyss - 42.27%

## CEOs

1. Founder: Inwan Youn (2010.11 ~ 2013.11)
2. 2nd generation: Myungjin Lee (2013.11 ~ 2014.10)
3. 3rd generation: Jiyoung Yoon (2014.10 ~ 2016.10)
4. 4th generation: Joonkyung Shin (2016.10 ~ present)

## Employees

Although this is the "employee" section. Not everyone that is listed here is soley part of YLABs as some were single contracts or is no longer at YLABS. Furthermore, we will be adding those that take part in Blue String and Red String as this is a page about YLAB, not Super String Specific.

In the "Misc." Section, we will include only important employees that either have an image or has an important role (ex. art director). The reason is that there is too many to count if we included all 3 strings as they have a lot of named people. Finally, we won't include those take part in Elimona webtoons and YLAB non-string webtoons. This decision may change.

* **Legends of Symbols**
	1. ✩ - *The person is likely not directly hired by YLAB but in some sort of contract.*
	2. ✦ - *Unclear if the person is still hired by YLAB or not anymore. Or is affiliated in some way.*

## Webtoons

This section will include Bluestring and redstring webtoons as this is a page about YLAB, not Super String Specific. We won't include Elimona webtoons and YLAB non-string webtoons. This decision may change later.

* *Note: Blue String Webtoon "I Want to Date a Girl" has been removed from bluestring as on September 1, 2023, it was revealed that recent episodes were plagiarized from mangas: Kaguya: Love Is War & Oshi no Ko.*

 File:Super String Team Art.png
**2011**

* Westwood Vibrato (Webtoon)

**2012**

* My Nights Shine Brighter Than Your Days

**2014**

* Distant Sky
* Prince of Prince

**2015**

* Burning Hell

 File:Original Super String 2016 Plan.png
**2016**

* Terror Man
* Reawakened Man
* Island Part 1 (Remaster) & Part 2

**2017**

* Blade of the Phantom Master (Remaster)
* Neolithic Girl

**2018**

* The World is Money and Power
* Kangtawoo (Webtoon)
* My Bad Boyfriend

**2019**

* Study Group
* Housekeeper
* Electronic Horror Store

 File:YLAB 2020-2021 Line Up.png
**2020**

* Hanlim Gym
* Friendly Competition
* Bible History
* Get Schooled
* Student Peace Council
* Terror Vs. Revival
* Jungle Juice

**2021**

* The Age of Barbarous
* To Not Die
* Death If We Break Up
* Witch's Judgment: Becomes a Flower
* This Isn't It
* Past Life Destiny
* Doll & I
* The Queens

**2022**

* Kuku-Kuku
* King Game
* I Want to Date a Girl (canceled)

**2023**

* Super String: Marco Polo's Travel to Multiverse

**Discontinued/Supsended Webtoons**

* Parako -
* Disaster Preparatory Committee -

## Series

**YLAB Universe Encyclopedia** - An updated verison of the original "Super String Encyclopedia." Both was written by 이지 and the cover was illustrated by Jeonghyun Seok.

**YLAB Universe** - There is currently, four string universe, Super, Blue, Red, and Gold String. With YLAB tradmarking "Black String" and "Purple String." All strings are conencted with each other with the same world view but distinct enough as each own world. Much like Spider-verse.

1. Super String - A bunch of heroes from the past, present, future, and parallel dimension joins to fight against evil with aspects of superhuman and supernatural aspects.
2. Blue String - A bunch of stories of youth and students. With aspects of deliquents, gangs, fights, and martial arts. With high school being the main setting. Mostly male-oriented works.
3. Red String - It is a romance universe that deals with the stories of people who met through the power of fate that pushes and attracts each other.
4. Gold String - It is a romantic medevial fantasy universe. The setting is on Fredenica, a Super String setting. It is a Japanese production companies and Japanese writers, it will be serialized in Japan.
5. Black String - Fans speculate it will be a 'dark hero noir-style world view' or 'horror-horror style' featuring Super String characters: Minhyeok Kim, Nikolai II, Van, Yak. This sudden Instagram post may suggest something.
6. Purple String - Fans speculate the possibility of a 'male-oriented fantasy world view."

YLAB Universe.pngYLAB UniverseSuper String Team (Official Group Art).pngSuper String UniverseBlue String Universe.pngBlue String UniverseRed String Universe.pngRed String UniverseGold String Universe.pngGold String Universe**PUBG Universe** - A webtoon series created in collaboration with YLAB, based on the PUBG universe. It is serialized on Naver Webtoon with three webtoons: 100, Night of Silence, and The Retreats

## Novels & Films

### Novels

There is only one novel currently: Wolf's Bodyguard, by Momo Park.

### Live Action

1. Prince of Prince (Web Drama)
2. Island (Drama)

There are many future films that are being produced by Yongfilm and Studio Dragon Corp.

1. Reawakened Man (Movie) - A movie scheduled to be released in 2024. There is some changes like original movie characters.
2. Distant Sky (Drama) - As of January 2023, it is planned and developed and will be produced by Studio Dragon.
3. Electronic Horror Store (Drama) - In June 2023, the plan was disclosed following YLab's IPO . It will be produced by Studio Dragon.
4. Terror Man (Drama) - In June 2023, the plan was disclosed. It will be produced by Studio Dragon. It is said to be under development in March 2022.
5. Reawakened Man (Drama) - In June 2023, the plan was disclosed. As of March 2022, it is said to be jointly planned and developed. It will be produced by Studio Dragon . It is a project that is being produced separately from the above film and has a different world view.
6. MNSBTYD - In June 2023, the plan was disclosed in DART's securities report following YLab's IPO . The script contract is in March 2022.

### Animation

1. Housekeeper - 3D animation
2. Island - 3d Animation
3. Terror Man - 2D animation

## Games

There is currently only one official Super String game which is called:

* **Super String (Mobile Game)** - It was released on May 25, 2021, created by Factorial Games but was unforutanely shut down at March 28 2023.

Besides this, there were other games that featured Super String characters.

* Excorcist in Island - A mobile game that features most of **Island** Part 1 and couple of Part 2 characters. It has its own story version of Part 2. Service ended on July 31, 2023.
* Kingdom of the Winds: Yeon - A mobile game that features a pixel RPG. The collab started on Novemeber 16, 2023 as it features a quest banner of tons of main characters, related items, and a BoTM Quest.
* Find It: My Bad Boyfriend - A mobile game that is a "spot the differences" and "puzzle games.' Seems to retell the webtoon story.
* Cypher - A third person shooter game that was released on June 30, 2011, featured Suki Kang. Service seems to still continue for only South Korea.
* Evolution Girl - A turn-based strategy mobile game that features Hasty, Mamiya, and Sando. Released on Novemeber 29, 2019, but ended on Janurary 29, 2021.

## Subsidaries

There is currently 6 headquarters and two CICs.

**HQ**

1. Management Headquarters
2. Story Lab
3. Art lab
4. Design Headquarters
5. Content Operation Division
6. Elimona Headquarters

**CICs**

1. YLAB Earth
2. YLAB Flex

### Elimona

It was officially launched on February 16, 2021, and Dongwoo Han, participates as an executive producer for the story division, and Suhyun Lee, a illustrator of The Queens, participates as an art executive producer.

Unlike Y Lab, which produces centrally planned works based on worldviews such as Super String and Blue String, Elimona not only provides game IPs, video scenarios, and web novel IPs, but also collaborates with webtoons based on original originals.

Interestingly, the name of the sub-branch is the same as Elimona, a character from Defense Devil. A series made by Inwan Youn and Kyungil Yang before YLAB. Supposedly, many people mistaken webtoons made by Elimona is related to Super String and Blue String.

## YLAB Academy

### Location(s)

* Namjeong Building, 42 Dokmak-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul

### SNS

* **Main Page**
* **Blog**
* **Instagram**
* **Facebook**
* **Youtube**
* **Twitter**

### YLAB Academy

 File:YLAB Academy.png
"*Webtoon education to nurture next-generation writers.*"

YLab Academy is the first webtoon education academy established in Korea, and it is becoming a gateway for aspiring writers who dream of debuting as writers. Anyone can challenge to become a webtoon writer at Korea's first webtoon specialized academy established by 'YLab', a cartoon production company that has produced numerous hits.

#### Description

Webtoon specialized academy operated by YLAB. Was established on July 2015. Inviting famous writers from within company or outside to conduct lecture programs. Classes are divided into various fields such as storytelling and work planning. The first director is Euicheol Shin.

Among the Y-Lab writers, there are quite a few students from here. It seems that YLab directly hires students who have completed the class. When you debut, you are often featured in Academy interviews.

## YLAB Store

### Location(s)

* 7th floor, 18 Dokmak-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul

### SNS

* **Main Page**
* **Twitter**

### YLAB Store

Established on Novemeber 22, 2021. The place that produces YLAB webtoon goods. It is not produced directly by YLAB, but are operated in a consignment format by 'DiiVER'.Supposedly, the products are popular with female fans. The merch are objects like acrylic stands, keyrings, pins, etc. However, you can buy rarer stuff like full mangas and the Super String Encycloepdia but is likely only in Korean language. The current merch for strings:

**Super String**

1. Jungle Juice
2. Hanlim Gym
3. Blade of the Phantom Master
4. Island
5. Terror Vs. Revival
6. Terror Man
7. Housekeeper
8. Kuku-Kuku

**Blue String**

1. Study Group
2. The World is Money and Power
3. Friendly Competition

**Red String**

1. Death If We Break Up
2. Witch's Judgment: Become A Flower

## YLAB Studios

### YLAB Studios

"As a subsidiary of YLAB, located in Tokyo, Japan, YLAB is diversifying its business, including production of webtoon and cartoon contents using Y Lab's know-how, global distribution and localization of third party's works, and overseas IP business using its own IP. We are realizing the globalization of lab."

Was establsihed on March 20, 2022, and is represented by Inwan Youn.

It is a Japanese corporate subsidiary of YLab, which was created to target the Japanese webtoon market. The first work that was published is Super String: Marco Polo's Travel to Multiverse. In addition to preparing a project called Gold String. The first outside of Korea

It is possible that it is the first sub-branch outside of South Korea.

## YLAB Plex

### Location(s)

* 7th floor, 18 Dokmak-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul

### YLAB Plex

Established on December 17, 2022. It is one of the CICs (presumb. Customer Info Control System) of YLAB. It is represented by Cheonghua Baek (백충화).

It is a video production subsidiary of YLAB. It is operated in the form of a CIC (In-House Independent Company). The drama is being produced in collaboration with Studio Dragon Corp. They are in the works of producing live action series or films of Super String and Blue String Webtoons. The first they had produced was the Island (Drama) in 2022 and 2023.

The dramas currently being prepared for production are:

1. Friendly Competition
2. Study Group
3. Get Schooled
4. Electronic Horror Store
5. Distant Sky

## YLAB Earth

### YLAB Earth

Established on December 17, 2022. It is one of the CICs (presumb. Customer Info Control System) of YLAB. It is represented by Jiyeong Yoon (윤지영). It is also an "in-house independent company."

It is basically in charge of overseas translation and webtoonization of all YLAB's webtoons.

However, particuarlly how or what is the process is a bit unclear.

## Affiliates/Associates

* Yongfilm - A film production company that will film live action Reawakened Man (Drama) and Terror Man (Drama). Unfortunately, the latter production has ceased but not the former.
* Studio Dragon Corp - Helped produced the Island (Drama).
* DiiVER - Preduced YLAB merch.
* Factorial Games - A game company. Created the first Super String Mobile Game. Unfortunately shut down.

## Fan Community

There are some communities for Super String:

* English: https://www.reddit.com/r/DistantSky/
* Korean: https://cafe.naver.com/terrormen160114

## Criticisms

There are many critiscims from Korean readers of all strings. Supposedly, mainly Super String has problems while the other two are relatively low.

* Super String Criticisms
* Blue String Criticisms
* Red String Criticisms

## Trivia

* Let's Bible, a manga from Inwan Youn, was originally to be a part of the Super String Universe but was excluded for unknown reason.
* YLAB as a company is sometimes used as an easter egg in the Webtoon:
	+ In ep. 29 of Electronic Horror Store, YLAB appears as an easter egg.
	+ In Prince of Prince, it is a game company that Angela worked at.
* It appears that YLAB is the first to every coined "Webtoon universe" where webtoons from the same creator or company is tied together for a bigger main story plot. The first "universe" was the Super String Universe.
* Hanlim Gym and Prince of Prince is the first couple to be in both strings. Altough the latter is the first, it was said to be excluded from Super String. Thus the former is the only one to be in both strings.
* Of the first webtoon from each string:
	+ Island Part 1, Westwood Vibrato, and Terror Man can be consider the first webtoon of Super String.
		- Island was the first work to be created before YLAB and Westwood Vibrato was the first work to be created after YLAB. Terror Man can be the first as the Super String was announced.
	+ The World is Money and Power is the first webtoon of Blue String.
	+ Prince of Prince is the first webtoon of Red String.
* Of the worst webtoons from each string as noted from Korean readers:
	+ The Queens is consider the worst Super String webtoon due to inconsistencies, uninteresting plot, power imbalance, etc.
	+ "Student Peace Council" & "I Want to Date a Girl" is consider the worst blue string webtoons. The former due to early completion, box office failure, and future use of crossover. While the latter was the themes fit with Red String then Blue String and the massive plagiarism.
	+ There appears to be no worst webtoon for Red String
* "I Want To Date a Girl," is the first Blue String and YLAB webtoon to be terminated and deleted from Naver webtoon due to massive plagiarism. Although there was a minor plagiarism in Hanlim Gym, it was not the extent of what happen in this webtoon. The plagiarism was essenitally copying the composition, pose, actions, and paraphrase dialogue of "Kaguya-Sama: Love is War" & "Oshi no ko" but mainly the former in the most recent episodes, noticed on September 7, 2023.
	+ It was also the first string webtoon to be excluded from a string universe (although Prince of Prince was said to be excluded from Super String but not due to negative reasons).
	+ It is not clear who to put the blame, either the author or illustrator. However, considering that the author is responsible for storyboarding, people place that Nogat Ryong is to blame.

## Gallery

YLAB's Offical Instagram Post (Part 1).pngYLAB InstagramYLAB's Offical Instagram Post (Part 2).pngYLAB InstagramYLAB's Offical Instagram Post (Part 3).pngYLAB InstagramSuper String Showcase.pngSuper String ShowcaseYLAB (Electronics Horror Store) Infobox.pngYLAB in Electronic Horror StoreFull Gallery Page
## References

1. ↑ https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%99%80%EC%9D%B4%EB%9E%A9
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%99%80%EC%9D%B4%EB%9E%A9
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%99%80%EC%9D%B4%EB%9E%A9 - Detail Section
4. ↑ https://cafe.naver.com/ylabacademy/7773
5. ↑ https://n.news.naver.com/mnews/article/015/0004690473?sid=105
6. ↑ https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%99%80%EC%9D%B4%EB%9E%A9#s-4
7. ↑ https://dart.fss.or.kr/dsaf001/main.do?rcpNo=20231129000079
8. ↑ https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%97%AC%EC%9E%90%EB%A5%BC%20%EC%82%AC%EA%B7%80%EA%B3%A0%20%EC%8B%B6%EB%8B%A4#s-6.2
9. ↑ https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%99%80%EC%9D%B4%EB%9E%A9%20%EC%9C%A0%EB%8B%88%EB%B2%84%EC%8A%A4 - World View Section
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%99%80%EC%9D%B4%EB%9E%A9%20%EC%9C%A0%EB%8B%88%EB%B2%84%EC%8A%A4 - Guess Section
11. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CkKhfxqBPmf/
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 https://dart.fss.or.kr/dsaf001/main.do?rcpNo=20230609000543
13. ↑ https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%95%84%EC%9D%BC%EB%9E%9C%EB%93%9CM#s-3
14. ↑ https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%8A%88%ED%8D%BC%EC%8A%A4%ED%8A%B8%EB%A7%81/%EB%AF%B8%EB%94%94%EC%96%B4%20%EB%AF%B9%EC%8A%A4#s-4
15. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/stories/ylabcomics/3237028591929551473/
16. ↑ https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%82%AC%EC%9D%B4%ED%8D%BC%EC%A6%88
17. ↑ https://dart.fss.or.kr/dsaf001/main.do?rcpNo=20230609000543
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%97%98%EB%A6%AC%EB%AA%A8%EB%82%98
19. ↑ http://www.munhaknews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=41224
20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 http://ylab.kr/sub/sub\_01\_03.php
21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4 21.5 21.6 21.7 21.8 https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%99%80%EC%9D%B4%EB%9E%A9 - Related Operation Section
22. ↑ https://blog.naver.com/diiver/222666126469
23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 https://news.mtn.co.kr/news-detail/2017103111094851808
24. ↑ https://www.topdaily.kr/articles/93304
25. ↑ https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%99%80%EC%9D%B4%EB%9E%A9#s-12
26. ↑ https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%8A%88%ED%8D%BC%EC%8A%A4%ED%8A%B8%EB%A7%81#s-14
27. ↑ https://namu.wiki/w/%EC%9B%B9%ED%88%B0%20%EC%9C%A0%EB%8B%88%EB%B2%84%EC%8A%A4
28. ↑ https://twitter.com/nyanyanzzang/status/1697588388441010477?t=nQbSWohRLb96f879wYuCpw&s=19
29. ↑ https://gall.dcinside.com/kaguya/157767
30. ↑ https://gall.dcinside.com/m/koreantoon/127527