A loss-making Q&A community turned itself into a fast-growing ad platform in just two years. The company behind that turnaround is Aha & Company (Aha).
Aha is the Q&A community most Koreans bump into through Naver or Google search — a place where users ask questions about medicine, law, parenting, and finance, and experts answer them directly. The transition from search result to Aha is so seamless that users often don't even realize they've left the search engine. That same Aha now welcomes 12 million monthly visitors and posted KRW 10 billion in revenue with KRW 4.2 billion in operating profit in 2024 — the year monetization clicked into place.
But just two years earlier, things looked nothing like that. Aha was deep in the red and needed a real turning point. How did the change happen? We sat down with CBO Cho Sung-hoon, who led the business turnaround, to get the story.
KRW 2.1B in losses: what was Aha thinking back then?
Q. A few years ago, Aha was running at a loss. What was the situation?
In 2022, Aha pulled in KRW 200 million in revenue against a KRW 2.1 billion operating loss. The team's working assumption was: "Establish the community first, monetize later." Investment dollars went into the service, not into revenue plays.
The problem was the funding environment turned. The next round every startup expects suddenly wasn't there, and Aha had to convert its traffic into revenue or face a real survival question.
Looking for a business model that could flip Aha into profit
Q. What was the turning point for the Aha team?
In 2023, Aha changed direction:
"We need to turn the data and traffic we already have into a business."
The team rolled out Aha Membership and a data-licensing business around questions and answers, and on top of that started monetizing traffic through advertising. Aha was already reaching 1 in every 4 people in Korea — 12 million monthly visitors — and its questions and answers were neatly organized by topic, giving it more than enough raw material for ad targeting.
If there was a moment to start an ad business, this was it.
Launching Aha's ad platform on AdControl
Q. How did Aha end up building its own ad platform?
Aha built its own ad platform on top of AdControl.
There was a clear reason. Aha had been monetizing via network ads, but network ads couldn't guarantee the share of impressions advertisers wanted, and they couldn't deliver context-based targeting at any real depth.
So Aha built a platform where advertisers could book inventory directly. Reserved buys get priority over network ads, which lets advertisers lock in the share of voice (SOV) they actually want — and Aha's question and answer data unlocks granular topic-level targeting that simply wasn't possible before.
In other words, Aha didn't just open up its ad inventory — it built a platform to deliver Aha's unique data and context straight to advertisers.
Aha's flagship product: the Top Answer Ad
Q. Could you walk us through Aha's signature ad product?
Aha's first flagship product is the Top Answer Ad.
Advertisers can place their message as the very first answer to questions on a chosen topic. Travel company ModuTour, for example, ran its campaign as the top answer on travel-related questions — so when a user landed on Aha looking for travel info, messages like "Early Bird" and "Brand Week" were the first thing they saw.
This isn't just a banner placement. It's a campaign design where all three of marketing's most important variables line up at once:
- Right time (immediately after search, when interest is at its peak)
- Right audience (people actively considering travel)
- Right message (a tailored brand promotion)
A different kind of branding moment than search ads
Q. How does this compare to search advertising?
Search ads are immediate, but the format limits how much of a brand message you can actually carry.
Aha fills that gap. The Top Answer Ad runs as a native ad, combining text with high-impact image assets. When a user comes in searching a specific topic, you can make a brand impression that's both natural and powerful right at the peak of their interest.
In other words, Aha gives advertisers a new opportunity to push past the limits of search advertising and meet users where interest and context overlap.
Next: keyword targeting and video ads
Q. Where does Aha advertising go from here?
Since adopting AdControl, Aha has been rapidly leveling up the platform — not just opening more inventory, but offering advertisers sharper targeting and more powerful branding moments.
The roadmap for next quarter has two main pieces:
- Keyword targeting: going beyond question categories to analyze the actual keywords inside questions and answers, surfacing ads that match the context. Advertisers will be able to target potential customers far more precisely than before.
- Video ads: layering video on top of Aha's text-driven Q&A context, so brand messages can land more deeply and stay with users longer.
Aha advertising is becoming less about "ads that get seen" and more about ads that imprint a brand in the moment a question is asked.
Human Intelligence over AI
Q. A lot of platforms are putting AI front and center right now. How does Aha think about that?
While many platforms lead with AI, Aha is taking a slightly different path. Aha's biggest asset is high-quality answers written by real people. Users trust an expert answer far more than they trust a plausible-looking generated one. And when a brand message lands inside that trust, the ad effect is multiplied.
A note to advertisers
Q. Finally, any message you'd like to share with advertisers?
Aha is no longer just a Q&A community. It's becoming a space where user questions and expert answers meet brand messages — a new branding channel that goes beyond search advertising.
If you want to attach your brand to high-quality Q&A in a way that feels natural, Aha's ad platform is built exactly for that.