Travel YouTuber Won Ji (legal name Lee Won-ji) posted another apology video as the controversy over the "6-pyeong basement office" grew. It is seen as a response to intensifying subscriber departures amid talk of a basement prison office.
On the 5th, according to the entertainment industry and others, Won Ji bowed her head in a new video, "Hello, this is Lee Won-ji," posted the previous day on her YouTube channel "Wonji's Day," saying, "I am sorry for causing concern and worry to many people over the office controversy."
She added, "I was someone who emphasized the importance of ventilation more than anyone, but I deeply reflect on having failed to carefully take care of that part and causing inconvenience to the team members."
On the 20th of last month, Won Ji uploaded a video titled "Looking for a 6-pyeong office" on YouTube and faced criticism. It was meant to introduce a newly secured team office, but the space shown in the video was about 6 pyeong with no windows on the second basement level.
Won Ji was immediately criticized. She had emphasized the importance of ventilation in her content and even called herself a "ventilation fairy." Some subscribers, after seeing the 6-pyeong office, reacted by saying it "looks like a prison."
Her explanation afterward only fueled the controversy. She repeatedly said there was no issue because "the building has a ventilation system throughout." Won Ji later set the video to private and said she would "secure a new office."
Subscriber departures also began. Won Ji, who boasted over 1 million subscribers thanks to her candid, down-to-earth talk and appearances on shows such as ENA's "World Dice Tour," had, as of the 5th, about 988,000 subscribers two weeks after the controversy.
That day, she showed a scene of consulting for a shared office and also revealed team members moving out their belongings from the existing office. Won Ji said, "We are gradually organizing the office, and we are carefully looking into where to move now."
She continued, "I think I may have tried to run the business too much like I travel alone. I realized that, whether big or small, I have many shortcomings while in the position of 'representative.' From now on, I will only proceed within what I can handle, without being greedy, and put things in order."