Do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light, though wise men at their end know dark is right, because their words had forked no lightning they, do not go gentle into that good night.
Beauty app Gangnam Unni tops 1,600 foreign patient bookings in 5 months
A promotional image of Gangnam Unni's concierge service for foreign patients / Courtesy of Healing Paper
By Jhoo Dong-chan
Healing Paper, the operator of Korea's leading beauty medical information platform Gangnam Unni, said Wednesday that its concierge service for foreign patients seeking cosmetic and dermatology treatments in Korea surpassed 1,600 completed cases in the five months since its launch.
The service, called Unni Guide, was launched in March to help foreign patients navigate Korea's beauty medical scene, from booking appointments at clinics to providing interpreters who accompany patients on-site.
Healing Paper said the service is aimed at removing the language barriers and information gaps that foreign patients often face. It operates through both an online channel and a physical service center.
The number of monthly completed procedures booked through Unni Guide has grown by about 30 percent each month since launch, the company said.
To date, patients from 73 countries — including Taiwan, the United States, China, Thailand and Singapore — have made more than 1,600 bookings through the service. Korea drew a record 2 million foreign patients last year, according to the company, a surge it said Unni Guide was built to help meet.
Unni Guide offers multilingual support through its website and messaging platforms including Line, WeChat and WhatsApp.
Its offline center, located in southern Seoul, offers skin analysis and imaging along with a showcase of Korean beauty brands, giving visiting patients a chance to explore Korean beauty treatments before their clinic visit.
Interpreters are available in languages including English, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Russian, Vietnamese, Mongolian and Indonesian, and are matched to accompany patients to their appointments at their requested date and time.
Healing Paper also reported growth in foreign users booking appointments through Gangnam Unni's separate global app, Unni.
The company said the number of users from Thailand grew thirteenfold and from Greater China twelvefold in July compared with a year earlier.
Japanese users make up the largest share of the app's user base, with 550,000 Japanese users booking clinic appointments through the app over the past year.
"From the moment foreign patients begin researching Korean beauty treatments to the moment they complete their procedures and head home, Unni Guide has served as a steady companion," Healing Paper CEO Hong Seung-il said, adding that the company plans to keep refining the service for both patients and the clinics that work with it.
Healing Paper, founded in 2012, operates Gangnam Unni, Korea's largest beauty medical platform, which has more than 9.5 million users worldwide and roughly 5,000 partner clinics in Korea and Japan.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.