Why Perplexity built a low-key coffee shop in Seoul’s most upscale district

There's almost nothing about Cafe Curious that suggests it was created by a Silicon Valley AI startup. Located in Cheongdam-dong, one of Seoul’s most upscale neighborhoods, the space opened on Sept. 3. From the outside, it looks like just another sleek coffee shop with glass doors, dark stone walls and a small sidewalk sign. The name Curious appears modestly on the corner of the building. But this is not a typical cafe. It's the first physical location operated by Perplexity, the generative AI c

Sept. 16, 2025

Meet the Baby Hiking Club

With a crisp breeze heralding the arrival of fall, nine tiny adventurers, most of them just 1 year old, set out on their very first hike of the season. Dangling from inside hiking carriers with rattles, little toys and teething rings, the babies cooed and gurgled as they gazed wide-eyed at the sky, the canopy of trees and fluttering birds — all over their parents’ shoulders. The parents echoed back and sang little songs, filling the tranquil trail on Buramsan in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, wit

Sept. 11, 2025

Books and beats: The strange comfort of reading alongside strangers

Walking down to the basement of a building in Seoul’s Seongsu-dong, the hallway hummed with the pulse of bass beats and the warm, low-toned sound of a synthesizer. A strip of red light spilled from behind the curtain, and as it was pulled open, the music swelled and the room glowed crimson, filled with the scent of woody perfume. The space looked ready for a late-night party, but the atmosphere was more sedate: Reading City is an experiment in combining the trend for silent reading clubs with mu

Sept. 10, 2025

This is the AI chatbot captivating 1 million Korean teens. They script tempting intimacy

The most heavily used AI chatbot app in South Korea by daily engagement time is not ChatGPT. Nor is it made by a Silicon Valley tech giant. It's a homegrown app called Zeta, an anime-styled roleplay app where nearly one million mostly teenage users spend an average of 2 hours and 46 minutes a day talking and flirting with virtual characters. That figure even surpasses entertainment platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, according to Mobile Index data from June. Though Zeta is officially r

Sept. 10, 2025

Diapers in Dior: Luxury fever seeps into parenthood

Picture this. You finally step out with your brand-new Dior tote and later discover baby milk leaking from a baby bottle inside. A nightmare scenario? Perhaps. But for some Korean mothers, it’s not a big deal, since they bought the bag to carry baby bottles in the first place. In South Korea, the world’s leading luxury market, oversized luxury totes have taken on an unexpected role as “diaper bags,” stuffed with diapers, milk, baby food and other baby essentials. A quick search for “diaper bag”

Sept. 7, 2025

Korea's once-condemned workplace talent shows now romanticized by some desperate job seekers

Wearing a glittering stage outfit, a woman jumps high, swings her arms, and shouts to the camera, “Start!” On her cue, hundreds of people in dozens of rows raise their cards together, kicking off a giant mass game that first forms a red running figure, then spells out the word “goal” in English. The assembled crowd also moves in perfect sync, forming a giant star. The giant cheering squad in the video wasn't made up of professional performers but of new hires who joined Samsung Electronics in 20

Aug. 30, 2025

In Korea, department stores are a magnet for babies and their moms

If you’re raising a young child in South Korea, not knowing this Korean word could make it hard to join conversations with other parents: “munsen.” Short for “munhwa center,” or “culture center,” munsen refers to dedicated spaces inside department stores and large supermarkets offering customers a wide array of classes. From yoga and personal finance to cooking and language lessons, these centers function as affordable private academies open to all ages. Originally a marketing tool to draw shopp

Aug. 27, 2025

How a childhood rebel became Korea’s most iconic public campaigner

When other children sang and danced during performance at kindergarten, 5-year-old Yi Je-seok lay flat on the floor. “I wasn’t in the mood,” Yi said. “You need a certain spark to dance. I just didn’t feel it that day. I know dancing regardless of how you feel is important in a group-oriented society. But I just couldn’t do it.” His mother was mortified and took him home. But for Yi — better known today as Jeski — it marked the beginning of a lifelong refusal to conform. A rebel from the start, h

Aug. 20, 2025

Mom cafes: A lifeline, and sometimes a minefield, for first-time moms

Search for “parenting” on Naver, South Korea’s largest web portal, and you'll be met with more than 50,000 online communities. The overwhelming majority shares one word in their names: “mom.” Known as “mom cafes,” these hyperlocal online platforms have become vital lifelines for new and seasoned mothers alike. Serving as the kind of village it takes to raise a child, these communities offer everything from parenting advice and emotional support to emergency help — and the occasional unsolicited

Aug. 19, 2025

How a driving score turned road safety into a national game in Korea

Thirty-one thousand, three hundred and sixty-six. That is the number of traffic accidents South Korea's most widely used navigation app, Tmap, claims it has helped prevent between 2018 and 2020. The figure comes from an internal model comparing the accident rates of drivers with high “driving scores” to those with lower ones, adjusted for distance driven. It is not the product of a government audit or a peer-reviewed study. In a country that records around 200,000 road accidents annually, it is

Aug. 17, 2025

Politeness without pressure: How Korean Gen Zers rewrite drinking norms

In Korea, drinking with elders or seniors, whether at work, school or in other social settings, traditionally comes with some etiquette. Beyond using both hands to pour or receive a drink and turning one’s head away while drinking, proper manners include holding your glass lower than a senior’s during a toast, promptly refilling their glass when it’s empty and reserving the seat farthest from the entrance for the most senior person at the table. For younger Koreans who haven’t learned these cust

Aug. 16, 2025

Parenting 101: Baby's first moment, sealed in a stamp

Cutting the umbilical cord marks a baby’s entry into the world -- a quiet yet powerful signal of life’s beginning. After the cut, about two or three centimeters of the cord remain on the baby’s belly. It’s clamped with a plastic clip to prevent bleeding and infection, gradually drying and darkening before naturally falling off within five to fifteen days. The severed cord may appear unappealing, but for many mothers, it is a tangible link to the profound experience of carrying life, something de

Aug. 12, 2025

The internship loop: Must have one to get one?

To land an internship in Korea, you may already need to have had one. "That’s the paradox frustrating many young job seekers today," said Lee Hee-soo, 26, who learned this the hard way. A graduate of Chung-Ang University, with a solid GPA of 4.41 out of 4.5 and a resume filled with a variety of extracurricular activities, Lee, who asked to be identified by a pseudonym, she thought she was well prepared to take her first step after college. Yet after submitting over 30 applications across multipl

Aug. 9, 2025

Faux pas to avoid while living in Korea

One of the key values of Korean culture is respect. South Korea is a country that places a great deal of importance on showing respect to elders and superiors at work, which is, in turn, reciprocated with care and respect. Although international influences have transformed many aspects of Korean culture, respect of others is still of the utmost importance when living alongside Koreans. This ranges from different ways of speaking to dining customs and everyday etiquette. The term “sillye” literal

Aug. 6, 2025

Mecca for surfing or flirting? Yangyang's struggle with online myths

Yangyang, a coastal county in Gangwon Province, is home to scenic mountain ranges and picturesque beaches such as Surfyy Beach, Korea’s first private beach catering exclusively to surfing enthusiasts. But while Yangyang promotes itself as a haven for nature lovers, social media tells a different story. On most social media platforms, searches for Yangyang often bring up the unexpected related keyword “hunting,” a loan word that in Korea refers to flirting, under which flashy images and videos of

Aug. 6, 2025