For creators visiting Seoul
Some places in this city will host you in exchange for what you make. This page is what that trade actually looks like — the value on the table, the work you owe, and the rules — written down before you apply rather than after.
What this is
A visiting creator is worth something specific to a Seoul business: content in a language their staff do not speak, aimed at people who have never heard of them and are already planning a trip. That is genuinely hard to buy any other way, and it is why these arrangements exist at all.
It is also a trade with two sides, and most of the friction in this industry comes from one side treating it as a gift. A shop that holds a two-hour slot for you has turned away paying customers for that slot. If the content never appears, they paid for nothing. Understanding that is most of what separates a creator who gets invited back from one who does not.
We are the middle layer here: we publish the listings, we set the ground rules, and we hold both sides to them. We do not take a share of what you receive, and we do not charge you to be listed.
What you get
Every listing states the service and its commercial value in US dollars. That is deliberate. Saying a service is complimentary tells you nothing you can plan around — a number tells you whether the hours are worth it, and it makes the exchange legible to a tax authority if it ever needs to be.
How a listing reads: the service, its value in dollars, the district, the hours it will take, and the languages actually spoken at the counter. Where a content fee is offered on top, it appears as its own figure rather than being folded into the total.
The hours matter as much as the value, which is why every listing carries the same time measure used everywhere else on this site. A service worth two hundred dollars that eats five hours of a four-day trip is not obviously a good trade, and you should be able to see that before you apply rather than after you have committed.
What you owe
Deliverables are set per listing, not by us, and they are stated up front. In practice they tend to look like this:
- A defined number of posts or videos, on named platforms, within a stated window after the visit
- A disclosure label — required by law, covered in the rules below
- Raw files or a usage licence, where the business asks for it. This is negotiable and should be agreed before you go, not after
What is never part of the deal is a promise about how the content performs. No business gets to require a view count from you, and none of them should ask.
The conditions a listing sets
Every listing answers the same set of questions, in the same order. Nothing below is a live offer — it is the shape each one takes, so you know what you are reading before the first one appears.
Who it is open to
| Tier | Followers |
|---|---|
| Nano | 1,000–10,000 |
| Micro | 10,000–100,000 |
| Macro | 100,000–1,000,000 |
| Mega | 1,000,000+ |
Tiers are a starting point, not a filter we apply on your behalf — each business names the ones it wants and states it on the listing. Channels covered: Instagram, TikTok, Xiaohongshu (小红书), YouTube. Markets: English-speaking · Greater China · Japan · Thailand · Taiwan · Hong Kong · Singapore · Middle East.
What the listing states
- The service and its value in US dollars — the number the business gave us, at their standard rate
- A content fee, where one exists — as its own figure, never folded into the service value
- Hours it takes — the same time measure used everywhere else on this site
- Visit windows — the days and times that business can actually host you
- Deliverables — how many posts, on which channels, by when
- Languages spoken at the counter — confirmed by the business, not guessed by us
What a listing will never contain: a required view count, a required like count, or any other promise about how your content performs. Reach is a result, not a condition, and no business gets to bill you for one.
The rules — read this part
These exist because of a number. In one campaign run in this market whose figures we have seen, 44 creators were confirmed for a visit and 13 actually turned up — a rate of 29.5%.
Every one of those empty slots was a business holding a chair open. That is the single biggest reason places are wary of hosting foreign creators, and it is a reason created almost entirely by creators. So the rules are short and we enforce them.
- Cancel with notice and nothing happens. Plans change and travel goes wrong. Message before the day and there is no penalty at all
- Not turning up is a strike. So is cancelling on the day itself without a reason you could not have foreseen
- Not publishing is a strike. Publishing late, after telling us, is not
- 3 strikes and you are out of the programme. We tell you when you get one, and why. What counts as a strike: Not turning up · Cancelling on the day without cause · Not publishing, without notice · Missing the disclosure label
Disclosure is not negotiable. Korean rules on endorsements require content produced in exchange for anything of value to say so clearly and visibly. Most countries your audience sits in have an equivalent rule. Label the post in its own language, where people can actually see it. A business is entitled to ask you to fix a post that is not labelled, and we will back them.
What is open right now
Nothing is open yet. We are signing the first places now. Rather than list campaigns that do not exist to make this page look busier, we have left it empty — which is also the honest signal that we are early.
If you are going to be in Seoul and want to be told when the first listings appear, write to hello@beforeseoul.com with your handles, the languages you post in, and roughly when you will be here.
When listings do appear they will be in these categories: head spa, barbershops, hair salons, nail studios, spa & wellness, getting around, experiences.
Why there are no clinics here
This is the question we get first, so here is the straight answer. Under the Medical Service Act, providing a procedure in exchange for promotion can be treated as inducing patients — and that provision reaches the clinic, not just whoever arranged it. Separately, advertising a medical institution is reserved to the institution itself, which means content you make about a procedure sits in a category the law does not allow you to occupy.
Plenty of people in this market run these campaigns anyway. We are not going to, because the party who carries the most risk is the business that trusted us, and because the first time it goes wrong it goes wrong permanently.
If you are a creator interested in treatments for your own sake rather than for content, the guides here are written for exactly that — what shows and for how long and what to ask a clinic.
Questions
What does a place actually give me?
A service, listed at its commercial value in US dollars. We publish that number rather than saying a service is complimentary, because a number is something you can weigh against the hours it costs you and the content you owe. Some listings also carry a separate content fee; where they do, it is stated as its own figure.
Do I need a certain follower count?
Each business sets its own requirement, and it is written on the listing rather than applied as a blanket rule by us. Reach is not the only thing they look at — language, the countries your audience is in, and whether your existing work looks anything like what they do all matter, sometimes more.
Why are there no clinics here?
Korean law treats medical institutions differently. Providing a procedure in exchange for promotion can be read as inducing patients under the Medical Service Act, and that provision puts the clinic at risk alongside everyone else. Content made by a person who is not a licensed provider is also restricted. We are not going to put a business we work with in that position, so this programme covers non-medical places only.
What happens if I cannot make it?
Tell us before the day. Nothing else is required and there is no penalty for cancelling with notice. What is not acceptable is not turning up, or turning up and never publishing. Both of those cost the business a slot they held open for you, and both are grounds for removal from the programme.
Do I have to label the content?
Yes, and this is not optional. Korean disclosure rules require that content produced in exchange for anything of value says so clearly. If you publish to an audience in another country, that country very likely has its own rule as well — the FTC in the United States, for one. Label it in the language of the post, in a place people actually see, not buried at the end of the tags.