This article was published on July 29, 2025, at 3:58 p.m. on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove site.
Day 1 Company, known for its online education platform "Fast Campus," is expanding its business scope beyond education to encompass all content. The first target is music. The company has acquired the operator of the YouTube channel "TOWMOO," which specializes in classical music content. This startup gained attention as it was listed for sale on the used goods trading platform carrot.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 29th, Day 1 Company has recently acquired NOA and incorporated it as a subsidiary. The acquisition negotiations began early this year, and the payment for the acquisition was completed last month. It is reported that they acquired more than 50% of the management rights equity in NOA, held by special stakeholders including CEO Baek Seung-jun and Hwang Ye-eun, for about 2 billion won.
NOA started as the YouTube channel "TOWMOO," created by college students in music in 2019. As classical performance content with entertainment elements like hidden cameras and challenges gained popularity, the company was established in 2021 and later expanded its business scope to include classical concert planning based on its online popularity.
"TOWMOO" is a channel with a strong fan base. A hidden camera video featuring a world-renowned pianist disguised as a music college entrance exam student tricking professors recorded about 23 million views. The channel's total accumulated views have reached approximately 370 million.
Day 1 Company is reported to have decided to acquire NOA noting the non-verbal characteristics of music. In particular, Park Ji-woong, the chairman of the Day 1 Company board, who previously worked as an examiner at Stonebridge Capital and leads Fast Track Asia, reportedly personally developed the content expansion strategy and led the selection of items for sale and the entire acquisition negotiations.
An industry insider said, "At the time Day 1 Company was pushing for the acquisition of NOA, the company was engulfed in controversies such as unfair employee recruitment practices and negative comments on competitors' performances, which had been constraining its business." The company changed its corporate name from TOWMOO to Original Live, NOA, and even listed its YouTube channel on the used goods trading platform carrot last September.
It is reported that Day 1 Company highly rated NOA's excellent capabilities in producing classical music content and concert planning despite ongoing controversies. Even during the subscriber attrition on the YouTube channel, it continued to achieve steady revenue growth by planning orchestra performances of movie scores and animation classics.
According to the Small and Medium Business Administration's small business status information system, NOA's revenue last year was 7.1 billion won, exceeding a 57% increase compared to 4.5 billion won the previous year. Considering that the revenue in 2022 was around 700 million won, it has increased tenfold in two years. However, operating losses were 100 million won in 2023 and 200 million won last year.
In the market, it is believed that Day 1 Company, which is in a double bind of poor performance and declining stock prices, has chosen mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to secure new growth engines. On the first day of its listing in January, its stock plummeted by 40%, and subsequently fell to around 6,000 won due to poor sales, failing to reach even half of its offering price of 13,000 won.
In fact, it is reported that Day 1 Company plans to expand NOA's classical music content into educational content while also utilizing it in separate music content that goes beyond education. Based on the fact that music has non-verbal characteristics, it is also reportedly considering global expansion of classical entertainment format content.
A Day 1 Company official stated, "It is true that we recently acquired NOA, and we will continue to grow in the general content market by adding NOA's content format to the online education we have built up for consumers as well as for corporations, institutions, and the global education market."
Meanwhile, some observers speculate that Day 1 Company will engage in additional M&A. This is because, at the time of its listing in January, it had already planned M&A to enhance competitiveness and enter the global market, as well as to expand its B2B business in both forward and backward areas. At that time, Day 1 Company allocated 3.3 billion won for M&A funding.