The power of the image: how the cleaner made $ 1 billion on "dirty love hotels"

Lee Soo-jin is one of Korea's newest billionaires and the founder of Yanolja, an online accommodation booking platform that has breathed new life into South Korea's doomed hospitality industry. When the government cracked down on "love hotels" where prostitution flourished, a former janitor at one of them figured out how to help these establishments with a dubious reputation change their image and find a new, decent audience. “I wanted to be successful because I was poor,” Lee says of himself. Left an orphan as a child, the future entrepreneur was one of those who in Korea are called the "clay spoon" - a person without a livelihood, ready to take on any job.

Thanks to his efforts, the recent outcasts, who were stigmatized in the media and fined by officials, have turned into respectable businessmen. The company managed to grow rapidly, even despite the lockdown: when foreigners stopped visiting the country, the service began to supply hotels with cloud solutions that allowed them to attract domestic tourists. Now the 44-year-old rich man is going to IPO in the usa .