[1mm Financial Talk] With a Production Team of 60... Why Did Toss Film a 'Documentary'?

"Would you hack Toss?"

This is the trailer video titled 'HELLSONIC: The One Who Hacks Toss' uploaded on Toss's YouTube channel. Resembling a movie or drama trailer, this video features Lee Jong-ho, a well-known white-hat hacker and leader of the security technology team, attempting to hack Toss within 48 hours. HELLSONIC is the nickname used among hackers for this leader. The video also features Lee Seung-geon, founder and CEO of Viva Republica, who personally requests the white-hat hacker team to hack Toss.

Toss will release this self-produced documentary titled 'The One Who Hacks Toss' on the 29th. Additionally, Toss plans to release another content called 'Block Busters: Surviving Secondhand Transaction Scams,' which documents the process of tracking secondhand transaction fraud, on the 17th of next month.

Departing from the traditional promotional methods of financial companies that feature famous celebrities in TV commercials, Toss has chosen self-produced documentaries as a new promotional approach. Inside Toss, there are four professional PDs dedicated to producing such content. The two documentaries scheduled for release were handled by in-house PDs, with 40 production staff involved in 'HELLSONIC' and 20 in 'Block Busters.'

Lee Seung-geon, CEO of Viva Republica

The reason Toss has taken on producing documentaries directly is to explain the issue of 'security' in an easy-to-understand way and to promote Toss. The aim is to break the prejudice that fintech is risky and to inform the public about how well Toss manages security through popular content. CEO Lee also stated, "It is truly important for Toss to create a safe financial world," adding, "Showing a future where online is safer, more reliable, and worry-free than offline is a matter of survival for Toss," thus personally engaging in promotion.

Moreover, the cost-effectiveness compared to expensive advertisements featuring famous models, whose effectiveness is often unclear, likely played a role. In fact, in February 2021, Toss posted an original documentary video titled 'FINTECH-BEHIND THE SIMPLICITY' on its YouTube channel. This promotional video, which captures Toss's internal corporate culture, has accumulated over 1.23 million views.

Yoon Ki-yeol, head of Toss Communications, explained, "The purpose of original content is to break the traditional promotional formula and find a way unique to Toss," adding, "We chose the method of planning and producing content ourselves because it has the advantage of showing more diverse aspects such as Toss's attitude and philosophy toward security, rather than just short advertisements."