Terms of Service

1. Who we are and what this service is

local/seoul (the "Service", available at localseoul.com) is operated by Kohwoon & Company Co., Ltd. ("we", "us", the "Company"), a company incorporated in the Republic of Korea. Our registered details appear at the bottom of this page.

The Service is a social matching platform. It helps independent foreign travelers ("Travelers") find and meet identity-verified residents of Seoul ("Locals") for casual, non-commercial activities such as having coffee, sharing a meal, or taking a walk in a neighborhood. Travelers and Locals are together referred to as "Users" or "you".

By submitting a request, accepting a meetup, creating a Local profile, or otherwise using the Service, you agree to these Terms of Service (the "Terms"), our Privacy Policy, our Safety & Community Rules, and our Photo & Gift Program Rules. Those documents are incorporated into these Terms by reference. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

2. We are not a travel agency

The Company is not a travel agency, tour operator, or tour guide business, and does not hold a travel business registration under the Korean Tourism Promotion Act. We do not sell, arrange, broker, or guide tours, and we do not sell or arrange accommodation, transportation, admission tickets, or any other travel product.

Meetups arranged through the Service are private social meetings between adults. Locals are not employees, agents, contractors, or representatives of the Company. Locals do not act as tour guides and must not charge Travelers for their time or for any "guiding" service. Any gift a Local receives under our Photo & Gift Program is a thank-you from the Company for participating in the community, not payment for a service rendered to a Traveler.

The Service is also not a dating or matchmaking service. It exists so that visitors can make a local friend in Seoul. Using the Service with romantic or sexual intent is prohibited and results in a permanent ban. To help Locals decide comfortably, Travelers state their gender when submitting a request.

Nothing on the Service constitutes travel advice, a safety guarantee, or a recommendation of any venue. You remain responsible for your own travel plans, insurance, visas, and decisions.

3. Eligibility

You must be at least 19 years of age (the age of majority under Korean law) to use the Service in any capacity. We do not knowingly allow minors to request, accept, or attend meetups. If we learn that a User is under 19, we will cancel any pending meetups and remove the account.

Locals must additionally: (a) currently reside in or around Seoul; (b) complete identity verification by uploading a masked copy of a government-issued ID as described in the Privacy Policy; and (c) keep their profile and contact details accurate.

You may not use the Service if you have previously been banned by us, or if applicable law prohibits you from doing so.

4. How matching works

The current pilot (v0.4) works as follows:

• A Traveler submits a meetup request with their name, email, nationality, travel dates, party size (1 to 4 people), preferred neighborhoods or a specific Local, interests, a short message, and optionally a public social-media link.
• If the Traveler chooses neighborhoods, the request is posted as a card on a request board that only identity-verified, approved Locals can see after logging in. The card shows the request details; the Traveler's email address, phone or messenger contact, and social-media link stay hidden until a match is made. We keep a record of which Locals viewed which cards.
• A Local whose schedule and interests fit can choose the card first-come, first-served. To match, the Local proposes meeting times and a public place (for example a cafe, restaurant, park, or landmark). Our team may also ask a specific Local by SMS to review a card that no one has taken; the Local decides freely on the same card screen.
• If the Traveler names a specific Local, the request goes to that Local only, with an acceptance link valid for 72 hours. The Local may accept, decline, or let the link expire; no reason is required. If the Traveler opted in, a declined or expired direct request is then posted to the board.
• Only after a match is made do we share contact details between the two parties so they can coordinate directly: the Traveler receives the Local's email address and mobile number, and the Local receives the Traveler's email address and, if given, phone or messenger contact. A matched pair can also coordinate through the Service's one-to-one web chat. Either party may cancel or release a match before the meetup; the card then reopens without that Local.
• After the meetup, either party may submit a photo taken together to take part in the Photo & Gift Program, subject to its rules.

We do not guarantee that any request will be matched, that a Local will respond, or that a meetup will take place. We may decline, close, or cancel a request at any time, including where we believe it conflicts with these Terms or the Safety & Community Rules.

5. Your responsibilities

You agree to:

• Provide accurate, current information and update it if it changes.
• Use your real name and, where applicable, your own identity documents.
• Meet for the first time in a public place, as required by the Safety & Community Rules.
• Treat the other party with courtesy, show up on time, and communicate promptly if plans change.
• Keep the other party's contact details confidential and use them only to coordinate the meetup.
• Comply with all applicable laws, including Korean law while in Korea.

You are solely responsible for your interactions with other Users, both online and in person, and for any expenses you choose to incur during a meetup (for example, paying for your own coffee or meal).

6. Prohibited conduct

The following are strictly prohibited and will result in an immediate and permanent ban, forfeiture of any pending gift, and, where appropriate, a report to law enforcement:

• Soliciting, offering, or requesting sexual, escort, or companionship-for-payment services of any kind.
• Demanding, requesting, or accepting payment from another User outside the platform, including tips, "guide fees", or reimbursement for time.
• Impersonating another person, using a false name, or uploading someone else's ID or photos.
• Providing paid tour-guiding or interpretation services without the licence required by Korean law, or using the Service to advertise such services.
• Harassment, threats, discrimination, hate speech, or any form of violence or intimidation.
• Recruiting Users for religious, political, multi-level-marketing, investment, or other commercial purposes.
• Submitting edited, staged, AI-generated, or reused photos to the Photo & Gift Program.
• Scraping, automating, reverse-engineering, or otherwise interfering with the Service.

The full list of community standards is set out in our Safety & Community Rules.

7. Photo & Gift Program

During the pilot, each meetup completed through the Service earns one thank-you gift: a Starbucks e-gift card worth KRW 10,000, sent to the Local's mobile number after a member of our team has reviewed a photo of the two of you taken together and submitted within 14 days of the meetup. Gifts are reviewed and sent by a person, never automatically.

Gift amounts and types are provisional and may change or be withdrawn at any time. The amount shown to you at the time you submitted or accepted the request applies to that meetup. Detailed eligibility conditions, verification, and forfeiture rules are set out in the Photo & Gift Program Rules, which form part of these Terms.

Gifts are voluntary thank-you gestures from the Company. They are not wages, fees, or compensation for any service, and receiving a gift does not create an employment, agency, or contractor relationship with the Company.

8. Content you submit

You retain ownership of the profile text, messages, and photos you submit. You grant the Company a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to store, reproduce, and display that content solely to operate the Service, verify meetups, and keep the community safe.

Once a match is made, you and your matched counterpart can use the Service's one-to-one web chat; chat is not available before a match. Chat supports text, emoji, images (converted to a reduced size on our servers), and short videos of up to 15MB. Chat messages and attachments are content you submit under this Section: they are stored on our servers together with the request record, are visible only to the two matched parties and to us, and are reviewed by us only when handling a report, resolving a dispute, or investigating suspected fraud or abuse. When a match is released, cancelled, or otherwise ends, the chat becomes read-only. We notify you of new chat messages by email or SMS, at most once per hour. To protect Users, chat messages and attachments may also be screened automatically — by a keyword filter and an external AI classification service, as described in Section 4 of the Privacy Policy — and we may pause a chat immediately, pending review, when the screening detects a risk signal.

Photos submitted to the Photo & Gift Program are collected for meetup verification and for promotion of the Service. Submitting a photo requires your consent, given on the submission page, to publication on localseoul.com and the Company's social channels with first names only; this consent is a condition of participating in the Gift Program. You may withdraw publication consent at any time by emailing us; we will remove the photo from channels we control within 10 business days (a gift already provided is not affected).

You confirm that you have the right to submit any content you provide, including the consent of everyone who appears in a photo.

9. Safety, reports, and enforcement

We verify the identity of Locals before they can appear on the Service, exchange contact details only after acceptance, and require first meetings to take place in public. These measures reduce risk but cannot eliminate it. Please read the Safety & Community Rules before meeting anyone.

If something goes wrong, or a User behaves in a way that concerns you, email kwad@kohwoonc.com. We respond to safety reports within 24 hours. In an emergency, contact the Korean police at 112 (interpretation is available) or emergency services at 119.

We may warn, suspend, or permanently ban any User, cancel meetups, withhold gifts, and preserve or disclose information to authorities where required by law or where we reasonably believe it is necessary to protect someone's safety.

10. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available" during an early-access pilot. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we make no warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including as to the identity, conduct, punctuality, or suitability of any User, the accuracy of any profile, or the availability of the Service.

Identity verification confirms that a Local has provided a government ID matching their stated name. It is not a background check and does not guarantee anyone's character or behaviour.

We are not a party to any meetup and do not supervise, direct, or control what happens during one.

11. Limitation of liability

To the extent permitted by applicable law, the Company is not liable for any loss, injury, or damage arising from your interactions with other Users, from meetups, or from your reliance on any information on the Service, except where caused by our wilful misconduct or gross negligence.

Where liability cannot be excluded, our total aggregate liability to you for all claims arising out of the Service in any 12-month period is limited to KRW 100,000 or the value of gifts actually paid to you in that period, whichever is greater.

Nothing in these Terms limits any liability that cannot be limited under Korean consumer-protection law or other mandatory law that applies to you.

12. Early access and changes to the Service or Terms

The Service is a pilot in a market-validation phase. Features, neighborhoods, gift programs, and availability may change, pause, or be discontinued. We will give reasonable notice of material changes where practicable.

We may update these Terms from time to time. The effective date at the top of the page shows the current version. For material changes, we will notify Users with an active request or profile by email at least 7 days before the change takes effect. Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance. If you do not agree, you may stop using the Service and ask us to delete your data.

This version (effective 2026-09-09) replaces the version dated 2026-09-08.

13. Termination

You may stop using the Service at any time and may ask us to delete your profile and data by emailing kwad@kohwoonc.com.

We may suspend or terminate your access immediately, without prior notice, if you breach these Terms or the Safety & Community Rules, if required by law, or if we discontinue the Service. Sections 6, 8, 10, 11, and 14 survive termination.

14. Governing law, disputes, and contact

These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Korea, without regard to conflict-of-law principles. Any dispute arising out of or relating to the Service shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Seoul Central District Court, except where mandatory consumer-protection law in your country of residence grants you the right to bring proceedings elsewhere.

Before starting formal proceedings, please contact us so we can try to resolve the matter informally. Korean residents may also apply to the Korea Consumer Agency or the e-Commerce Mediation Committee.

Questions about these Terms: kwad@kohwoonc.com · Tel 070-4769-0213 (Korean and English, weekdays 10:00–18:00 KST).

If there is any inconsistency between the English and Korean versions of these Terms, the English version prevails for Users outside Korea and the Korean version prevails for Users in Korea, to the extent permitted by law.