Read this profile if you are comparing AI companion and role-play apps, or following Korean AI regulation. Scatter Lab reports average daily use of 2 hours 40 minutes per Zeta user, and in 2026 the company faces parliamentary questions about teen safeguards.
Scatter Lab is a Seoul AI company that runs Zeta, an AI character chat and storytelling app launched on 1 April 2024. It also built the Iruda chatbot, which led to a 2021 sanction from Korea's privacy regulator. Zeta operates in Korea and Japan, and Kim Jong-yoon is the CEO.
HQ: Seoul, South Korea · CEO: Kim Jong-yoon · Funding: 15 billion won strategic investment from SK Telecom (Apr 2023); no 2025-2026 round confirmed
About Scatter Lab
Scatter Lab, headquartered in Seoul, operates Zeta, a character-driven product where people write stories with AI characters. Zeta launched on 1 April 2024. In a company post dated May 2025, Scatter Lab said Zeta had passed 2 million cumulative sign-ups and 800,000 monthly active users within its first year, with average use of 2 hours 40 minutes per user per day. Those are the company's own figures and have not been audited by a third party. Users choose or create a character and play out a story in which the AI answers in real time, which Scatter Lab describes as AI-native entertainment rather than a chat app.
Zeta entered Japan in May 2024. In January 2026 the company said Zeta earned 1.1 billion won in Japan in December 2025 and reached daily revenue of 75 million won in early 2026, and that it aims for more than 20 billion won of annual revenue there. It cited the app analytics firm App Ape for Zeta ranking first among entertainment AI apps in Japan by users in December 2025, with more than 200,000 daily active users on 31 December 2025. These are figures announced by Scatter Lab and reported by Money Today.
Kim Jong-yoon is the CEO. In April 2023 SK Telecom made a strategic investment of 15 billion won in Scatter Lab, and the two companies said they would co-develop a large language model for emotion-focused AI agents, according to The Bridge's report of the Startup Recipe weekly roundup. HokAI found no funding round dated 2025 or 2026 in a source it could read, so the funding field covers the 2023 investment only.
The company's best-known past product is the Iruda chatbot, and it carries a regulatory record. On 28 April 2021 Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission fined Scatter Lab 55.5 million won, added an administrative fine of 47.8 million won (103.3 million won in total) and ordered corrective action. The commission found eight violations of the Personal Information Protection Act. According to Byline Network's report of the decision, KakaoTalk conversations collected through the earlier apps Textat and Science of Love, from about 600,000 users and roughly 9.4 billion sentences, were used to build and run Iruda without removing names, phone numbers or addresses, and about 100 million sentences from women in their twenties were placed in Iruda's response database. The commission held that a "new service development" line in the privacy policy did not amount to consent for that use. The case was reported as the first sanction of an AI company for unlawful personal data processing in Korea.
In October 2026 Zeta came under National Assembly scrutiny over minors' use of companion-type chatbots. Digital Today reported that Kim missed the 12 October audit session because of a US trip scheduled from 27 September, and that he was named a witness for the Education Committee audit on 23 October. A lawmaker cited monthly Zeta usage of 110 million hours. Scatter Lab said it would introduce teen protections within the year, including a 3-hour daily usage limit and a 100,000 won monthly payment cap for teenagers.
Zeta competes with Wrtn's Crack and Eleven's Babychat in Korea, the two services whose chiefs were also called to the same hearing. On HokAI, comparable character-chat tools include Character.AI, Janitor AI and Wrtn. Other Korean AI companies on HokAI include Naver, Kakao, Upstage, LG AI Research, Sionic AI and Allganize. To choose between chat apps for your own use, try HokAI Smart Match.
Products
- Zeta (Character chat app): https://www.scatterlab.co.kr/en/intro
Links
Frequently Asked Questions
How much funding has Scatter Lab raised?
The latest round HokAI could confirm from a source it read is a 15 billion won stake from SK Telecom, dated April 2023. Some data sites and recruitment pages cite larger cumulative totals and later rounds, but HokAI could not verify them, so it states no total and no valuation. Scatter Lab is privately held.
What products does Scatter Lab make in 2026?
Its main product is Zeta, where users play out stories with AI characters. The company also built the earlier Iruda chatbot, and the apps Textat and Science of Love. HokAI has not verified current Zeta subscription prices, so check the app for them.
How does Scatter Lab handle data privacy and compliance?
HokAI found no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification on a Scatter Lab page it could read, so it lists none. The country's privacy regulator penalised the company in 2021 for how Iruda's training data was handled, with fines totalling 103.3 million won. The company links an AI ethics site from its homepage.
Who are Scatter Lab's main competitors?
In Korea, a parliamentary hearing in October 2026 named Wrtn's Crack and Eleven's Babychat alongside Zeta. Abroad, Character.AI and Janitor AI offer similar character chat. Zeta's reported strength is long sessions and Japan traction, based on company figures. Its weak point is regulatory exposure over minors' use.
How do you start using Scatter Lab's products?
Zeta is the entry point, and the company site has Korean, English and Japanese versions of its pages. Open the Zeta page on scatterlab.co.kr, install or open the app, pick or create a character and start a story. Teen accounts are due to get daily time and payment limits under changes announced for 2026.