South Koreans head home after work at a little past 6 p.m. on July 31, 2018, in Jung District, central Seoul. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Korea Bizwire) – In a milestone celebration this month, Blind, the community application allowing professionals to engage anonymously, is commemorating a decade of service since its launch in South Korea.
According to data released by Blind on December 7, the app boasts a user base of 6 million in the country, with a staggering 90 percent of employees from top 1,000 companies actively participating.
Even if it might sound like an exaggeration, it’s safe to say that a significant portion of the working population in South Korea dedicates a considerable amount of time to the Blind app.
The app, unveiled in December 2013 with the vision of creating a healthy organizational culture through “the voice of the members,” allows users to join by receiving an email containing authentication information through their company email accounts.
The core of the service lies in its implementation method, ensuring that no information about users is stored on the system.
Blind emphasizes, “From the initial stages of planning the service, the top priority was the completeness of security.” They add, “Based on the philosophy that even the most skillful thief can’t rob an empty house, we researched methods to completely discard personal information to safeguard it perfectly.”
This dedication to security has resulted in Blind successfully filing patents for the email authentication process in the United States, Korea, and Japan.
Since its launch in July 2015 in the United States, Blind has expanded its service areas gradually, introducing Blind Dates in October 2020 and career transition service Blind Hire in June 2021.
In June of this year, Blind earned a spot on Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential Companies 2023 list.
The turning point for Blind’s rise to prominence in South Korea can be traced back to the December 2014 Korean Air ‘nut rage’ incident, when then-Korean Air vice president Cho Hyun-ah caused a delay on a Korean Air flight at New York’s JFK Airport, demanding the plane return to the gate to remove a crew member who she alleged had served her nuts improperly.
Former Korean Air vice president Cho Hyun-ah caused a delay on a Korean Air flight at New York’s JFK Airport, demanding the plane return to the gate to remove a crew member who she alleged had served her nuts improperly. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
Through Blind, it was revealed that Cho, at the time, had engaged in violent behavior towards the crew member and issued instructions to have them removed from the plane due to issues with the way the nuts were served. The revelation triggered a social controversy about ‘gapjil,’ a Korean term for abusive conduct by people in positions of power, leading to Cho’s resignation amid widespread public outcry.
In addition to the ‘nut rage’ incident, numerous workplace issues have been exposed through Blind, such as persistent assault by Cho’s mother, former Ilwoo Foundation director Lee Myung-hee, inappropriate physical contact under the guise of encouragement by Kumho Asiana chairman Park Sam-koo, workplace harassment leading to an employee’s death at Naver, forced golf and alcohol entertainment for female employees at LG Household & Health Care, and violation of internal hygiene rules by Kakao employees amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a result, the platform has played a crucial role in bringing about resignations, disciplinary actions, investigations, and system improvements.
In 2021, Hyundai Motor established an office labor union through Blind, showcasing the app’s impact on fostering communication within companies.
According to a survey conducted jointly by Blind and the Korea Labor Institute in the same year, 1 in 3 Korean employees claimed that Blind had enhanced communication within their companies, and 6 out of 10 respondents stated that they used Blind to raise internal issues.
Blind’s founder and CEO, Moon Sung-wook, emphasized to Yonhap News, “Whether it was ten years ago or now, Blind’s goal is for organizational culture to shift in a healthy direction through the voices of its members.”
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
