A team connecting local discovery and travel through AI

With AI, we find 「HOTPLE」
and help create 「HOTPLE」

*「HOTPLE」 comes from “hot place,” a Korean expression for popular places worth visiting.

HOTPLE connects fragmented local data—from social media and place listings to reviews—using AI.
We help people discover new places and give local businesses data-driven ways to grow.

Explore HOTPLE MarketingExplore the HOTPLE App

ABOUT

We create places people want to visit—
and reasons to choose them.

People discover places on social media, check maps and reviews, and then decide where to go. But the information they need along the way is scattered across different services.

HOTPLE connects fragmented local data—from content and place listings to reviews—around real-world places and structures it for AI. On this foundation, we operate a place discovery service for consumers and a marketing service for local businesses, while expanding our technology toward AI-assisted travel planning.

SERVICES

One place data foundation.
Two services.

Built on the same place data and AI technology, our services solve different problems for consumers and local businesses.

Data-Driven Place Marketing

We analyze a business's online presence across Naver Place, blogs, social media, and its competitive landscape to identify where it stands and recommend the marketing actions to prioritize.

Explore the Service

Discover New Places Worth Visiting

HOTPLE organizes local content and place data to make it easier to discover new restaurants, cafés, pop-up stores, and other places worth visiting.

Explore the App

TECHNOLOGY

We build AI that understands places.

HOTPLE's AI goes beyond simply listing popular places. It understands place information from content, connects it with real-world place data, and uses the same data foundation to recommend places to users and generate actionable insights for local businesses.

  1. 01

    Content Understanding

    We identify the places featured in short-form videos, blogs, and social content and understand what makes each place distinctive.

    Multimodal AI

  2. 02

    Place Data Linking

    We connect fragmented content and reviews to real-world places and organize information such as business hours, menus, and prices around each location.

    Place Entity Resolution

  3. 03

    Recommendations & Insights

    Using structured place data, we help users find places that fit their needs while helping businesses understand where they stand and what they can improve.

    Vector Search · RAG · LLM
IN DEVELOPMENT

HOTPLE AI Travel Agent

Built on the same place data, we're extending the discovery experience into travel planning—developing a way for groups to plan trips together by understanding each traveler's goals, budget, and preferences, and drawing on real place content and operating details to help the group decide as one.

6,000+

Users

300+

Clients

2,000+

AI-Generated Analysis Reports

2025

Incorporated

CORE VALUES

How We Work

Data-Driven

We make product and marketing decisions based on user behavior and real-world local data.

Move Fast

We ship quickly, learn from real user feedback, and keep improving.

Customer-Focused

We start with the real problems faced by users and local businesses.

Trust

We believe lasting relationships are built by consistently keeping even the smallest promises.

FOUNDER

Building with Data and AI

Sungjin Cho, Founder & CEO of HOTPLE

Sungjin Cho

Founder & CEO

I build technology that connects content with place data—and products that use that technology to solve real problems for users and local businesses.

Highlights

  • Present — Founder & CEO, HOTPLE Inc.
  • Former CMO, Rivervance Co., Ltd., a blockchain technology company
  • Former Co-CEO & CTO, UNISKY, a port technology company
  • 1st Place, K-Startup Innovation Startup League — National Competition
  • Three-time recipient of the Minister of Science and ICT Award
  • M.S. in AI, GIST

We're looking for partners
to build with.

We welcome inquiries about service partnerships, tourism and content collaborations, technology partnerships, careers, and investment.

1661-1610contact@hotple.today