Lee Se-young is CEO of Wrtn Technologies.

By Koh Hyunjeong
Photos = Wrtn Technologies

One of every 10 Koreans use AI Wrtn, a domestic version of ChatGPT developed by Wrtn Technologies. Released in March 2023, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot has over five million active monthly users.

The company has accelerated its global advance by attracting a combined KRW 48 billion of investment from Silicon Valley of the U.S. and leading domestic and foreign venture capital.

Wrtn is an AI portal service offering free unlimited use of generative AI on one platform. It swiftly adopts cutting-edge global services such as GPT-4o, Stable Diffusion 3 and Claude 3 as they emerge and aids their use through localization.

The platform's design also allows safe use of DeepSeek R1, which has recently stirred controversy over security. Wrtn loads DeepSeek R1 on a separate cloud and physically separates it from the model producer.

Using the chatbot's "safe service," the input data is neither sent to a certain country nor used for AI learning.

Users can look up Wrtn on KakaoTalk, the country's top instant messaging app, and add it as a friend without installing a separate app. It allows free unrestricted usage of the AI service with outstanding accessibility.

The AI search function is considered outstanding and quick with features like applied retrieval-augmented generation and internet browsing AI agent technology. It produces more accurate responses by using user speech analysis technology accumulated for over a year on the AI portal service.

Even if a user asks a vague question, AI automatically plans, searches and summarizes the key points only.

The company has also monetized its character service Super Chat, a partially fee-based service that applies better-performing AI to enhance the conversation between a user and AI characters. Super Chat raked in monthly sales of KRW 2 billion within three months after its release, emerging as a successful revenue model.

An economic delegation from the United Arab Emirates on Nov. 10, 2023, visit Wrtn Technologies' office in Seoul's Gangnam-gu District.

Wrtn Technologies is also active abroad, launching service in Japan in 2023 and now aiming for the Middle East. In November 2023, it was the only generative AI company visited by the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) finance minister at the invitation of Korea's Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia are active investors in generative AI infrastructure.

"A 20-something entrepreneur has changed the world at every transition phase," Wrtn Technologies CEO Lee Se-young said. "We will develop Wrtn into a super app for generative AI."

hjkoh@korea.kr