Shopping and tax refund app in one go... "Goal is a tourism consumption big data platform"

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"Our goal is to grow into a global tourism big data platform that analyzes where tourists shop, what they buy, and why."

These are the words of Kim Yong-woon, CEO of The Service Platform (photo). Established in 2020, The Service Platform is a startup that digitizes 'tax refund' services, which foreign tourists can receive when shopping in Korea.

Tax refund is a system that allows foreigners to get back the value-added tax (10%) included in the purchase amount when they buy goods in Korea. Until now, this process was quite cumbersome. For example, visitors had to go directly to stores to make purchases, carry the items throughout their trip, and then separately visit refund counters at airports or city centers before returning home. It was also common for refunds to take several weeks to arrive in bank accounts.

The Service Platform solved this inconvenience with an app (application) and robots. Users can pre-order products via the smartphone app 'Punch Reward' and then pick up their items at a robot kiosk called 'Refund Robot' at designated locations. Tax refunds are processed on the spot as well.

This convenience quickly spread among Japanese tourists visiting Korea. In 2024, it was introduced on Japan's public broadcaster NHK, leading to collaboration proposals from Japanese companies. A representative achievement is the establishment of a joint venture (JV) with inbound platform, a Japanese listed company. The company, set to be established in Tokyo this July, aims to build a new duty-free shopping service for foreign tourists visiting Japan.

The background of this cooperation lies in changes to Japan's government regulations. Starting next November, Japan plans to change its tax refund method for foreign tourists. Until now, the system was 'immediate tax exemption,' where consumption tax is deducted at the time of purchase in stores. However, it will shift to a 'post-payment refund' system, where taxes are paid first and refunded later. This structure is the same as the model The Service Platform has been operating in Korea.

The scale of Japan's tourism market is also noteworthy. The number of foreign tourists visiting Japan exceeds twice that of Korea, so the tax refund market is expected to grow rapidly after the regulatory reform. The joint venture plans to discover small and medium-sized manufacturers and specialty product companies across various regions in Japan and connect them with The Service Platform's shopping and refund platform 'Punch Reward.' After launching pilot projects in major cities such as Tokyo, Osaka, and Fukuoka, it intends to expand services to regional airports and tourist destinations.

What The Service Platform ultimately focuses on is the 'data' accumulated through this business. The company plans to expand its operations into a B2B (business-to-business) data report service, analyzing tourist purchase data accumulated while operating the tax refund platform and providing it to manufacturers and distributors. This structure connects which products tourists from which countries prefer with product recommendations and sales based on demand patterns.

Kim (CEO) stated, "The core goal is to build a pipeline that connects tourism consumption data from Korea and Japan into one." Once both platforms are in place, it will be possible to cross-analyze purchase data of foreign tourists visiting both countries. The explanation adds that this includes not only consumption patterns by country, gender, and age group but also demand changes according to seasons or travel environments.

Expansion into Japan also serves as an opportunity to accelerate data acquisition. Kim (CEO) said, "The core of the data industry lies in how extensively and precisely tourist consumption data can be connected." He added, "Starting with Korea and Japan, we will leapfrog into a global big data platform that analyzes where, what, and why tourists around the world consume." The company also plans to concurrently build data infrastructure capable of AI-based analysis.

[MoneyToday startup media platform Unicorn Factory]