Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.
Gangnam Unni expands offline with foreigner-friendly center
An image of Healing Paper's Unni Guide center in Gangnam District, Seoul / Courtesy of Gangnam Unni
By Lee Gyu-lee
Healing Paper, the operator of the aesthetic medical platform Gangnam Unni, is expanding offline as it opens its first Unni Guide center in Gangnam District, Seoul, dedicated for international visitors seeking dermatology and plastic surgery services in Korea.
The move marks the company's first major step toward integrating its online platform with offline services, leveraging its data and user insights accumulated over 11 years.
Spanning two floors, the center offers personalized guidance, clinic booking support and K-beauty experiences, including skin analysis and product demonstrations of skin care and home-use beauty devices.
“We plan to actively leverage the experience we’ve accumulated with Gangnam Unni in Korea and Japan to expand technology and infrastructure that make medical information more transparent for patients globally,” Healing Paper CEO Hong Seung-il said.
“This center will connect the online platform with offline experiences to establish a convenient and standardized K-beauty service model that attracts more international patients.”
A key feature of the center is its equal price policy. As foreign patients have often been charged higher prices than locals, the center supports reservations primarily with clinics that provide identical pricing information to both local and overseas patients.
Going forward, the Unni Guide service will operate across both online and offline channels. Through the global mobile app UNNI, users can access one-on-one clinic reservation support or visit the center in person for assistance without prior reservations. Interpretation services are available in Chinese, Thai and English.