Gangnam Unni app / Courtesy of Healing Paper
Healing Paper, which operates a mobile marketplace for cosmetic medical consultations, said Monday that its flagship platform had surpassed 700,000 cumulative foreign users as of March.
The platform, Gangnam Unni, said the figure represents overseas users who completed consultations or reservations for medical aesthetic procedures in Korea. The company’s growth offers a measure of the rapid internationalization of the country’s health care market, particularly in dermatology and plastic surgery.
The milestone comes as Korea’s foreign patient count reached a record 2 million in 2025, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Of those, about 62.9 percent — roughly 1.31 million — visited dermatology clinics, while plastic surgery accounted for 11.2 percent. Combined, cosmetic medical services made up more than 74 percent of all foreign patient visits.
Gangnam Unni, which offers booking services in six languages, has steadily broadened its reach since adding Japanese support in 2019, followed by English in 2023, Thai in 2024 and Chinese in 2025. The platform connects overseas users with clinics across Korea, streamlining consultations and reservations through a mobile interface.
Growth has been especially strong in Japan, where about 200,000 new users booked consultations or procedures over the past year, making it the platform’s largest source market. English-speaking users from countries including the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom rose 3.2-fold over the same period, while Thailand saw roughly a 20-fold increase and Taiwan surged about 25-fold after the service expanded.
The surge in demand has translated into strong financial performance. Healing Paper reported 97.9 billion won ($73 million) in annual sales in 2025, a 45 percent increase from a year earlier. Sales generated by its Japanese subsidiary nearly doubled, rising from 7.6 billion won to 13.7 billion won.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.
Source: Korea Times News
