Lee Byung-chul, founding chairman of Samsung, retained the top spot for the eighth consecutive month in the 'Immortal Founders' category of the September Netizen Awards Hall of Fame.

The category was established in February this year, and founding chairman Lee Byung-chul, who has held first place every month since, secured 529 votes (43.6% of the vote) in September's voting to keep his throne. As in August (547 votes, 43.7%), he recorded a stable vote share in the low-to-mid 40% range, solidifying his long-term lead as the dominant figure in the category.

In the race for second and third place, the solid two-way structure between Chung Ju-yung, founding chairman of Hyundai, and Yu Il-han, founder of Yuhan Corporation, continued. Chung defended second place with 280 votes (23.1%) in September, up from 285 votes (22.8%) in August, while Yu took third place with 243 votes (20.0%) in September, following 256 votes (20.4%) in August. Both founders maintained vote shares in the 20% range, anchoring the upper-tier competition.

There were no changes in fourth and fifth place either. Park Tae-joon, honorary chairman of POSCO, kept fourth place with 86 votes (7.1%), following August's 110 votes (8.8%), while Shin Kyuk-ho, general chairman of Lotte, secured fifth place with 40 votes (3.3%), improving both his vote count and share from August (27 votes, 2.2%).

Ranking changes appeared in the middle and lower tiers. Koo Bon-mu, chairman of LG Group, remained seventh in August with 7 votes (0.6%) but climbed one notch to sixth place with 10 votes (0.8%) in September. Conversely, Kim Jong-hee, founder of Hanwha Group, who was sixth in August with 10 votes (0.8%), slipped to seventh with 8 votes (0.7%). Choi Jong-hyun, chairman of SK Group, gathered 6 votes (0.5%) to maintain eighth place, following August (4 votes, 0.3%).

In the lower tier, Park Too-pyung, first chairman of Doosan Group, and Cho Choong-hoon, founder of Hanjin Group, each received 5 votes apiece, tying for ninth place with an equal vote share of 0.4%, bringing the September Immortal Founders category race to a close.