Accompanied Outings Still Difficult in the Era of 5.91 million Pet-Owning Households: Curation Service Aims to Improve.

- Despite there being 5.91 million pet-owning households in South Korea, pet owners face significant challenges finding accurate and detailed information about pet-friendly locations, making outings difficult.
- Pawdlers, a pet-tech company, is developing 'Pawdly Spot,' a curation service that will provide customized recommendations for pet-friendly venues based on both pet and owner preferences, using real user experiences and social media data.
- The service aims to launch by March next year and will offer a community-driven platform for sharing and discovering pet-friendly spots, with plans to integrate AI for even more personalized recommendations in the future.


Despite South Korea boasting 5.91 million pet-owning households, the number of facilities accessible to pets remains severely inadequate. Adding to the difficulty for pet owners to enjoy outings is the scarcity of reliable information about pet-friendly locations. Many pet owners face considerable inconvenience due to the lack of dedicated channels for finding relevant data and the general inaccuracy of existing information.

To tackle this information asymmetry, pet-tech company Pawdlers is developing 'Pawdly Spot,' a curation service for pet-friendly establishments.

Source=Shutterstock

Pawdlers Set to Release 'Pawdly Spot' Pet-Friendly Location Curation Service by March Next Year

According to the '2025 Korea Pet Report' published by KB Financial Group Research Institute, the Korean pet-owning population stood at 15.46 million as of the end of last year, accounting for 5.91 million households—or 26.7% of all households. The institute points out, "While numerous guardians desire ample time and engagement for their pets' happiness, places to spend that time in daily life remain significantly insufficient."

Pet owners who have experience taking their pets out frequently cite both the lack of pet-friendly venues and the absence of precise information. Instances are common where individuals, upon finding a "pet-friendly" restaurant, are turned away due to restrictions on large breeds or the lack of a required stroller or carrier. This illustrates the critical point that a simple 'pet-friendly' designation during a search is often insufficient.

For pet owners, crucial information includes whether indoor accompaniment is allowed, if large dogs are permitted, the availability of pet-specific menus, and the general ambiance and spacing of seats. Such details are often difficult to confirm through mere internet searches. The pet-tech company Pawdlers has stepped up to address this challenge.

Pawdlers currently operates 'Pawdly,' a reservation and customer management solution for pet owners and pet grooming shops. The service facilitates appointment bookings within 24 hours for pet grooming. Utilizing a questionnaire developed in collaboration with veterinarians, the platform informs professional groomers of any special notes, such as the pet's surgical history or health status, ensuring safe service delivery. For franchisees, the company offers a pre-paid reservation feature to mitigate no-shows. The company also manages a Marketplace for purchasing pet supplies.

Pawdly Spot / source=Pawdlers

Following 'Pawdly' and the Marketplace, Pawdlers is now focused on Research and Development (R&D) for the 'Pawdly Spot' pet-friendly location curation service.

Pawdlers plans to move beyond simple search functionalities to offer a highly sensitive curation service through Pawdly Spot. For instance, it will provide customized location recommendations that reflect the pet's breed, size, sociability, and temperament, alongside the owner's preferences, hobbies, and lifestyle.

The foundation for this service structure lies in the combination of data and emotional curation. The results integrate location experiences shared directly by pet owners within the community app, augmented by the narratives of actual visitors primarily sourced from social media platforms like Instagram. Through this process of sharing information and experiences, users can receive recommendations from pet owners in their vicinity or those with similar tastes.

Services of Pawdly Spot / source=Pawdlers

Pawdlers emphasizes that by organizing the reasons for wanting to visit a pet-friendly location in a storytelling format, 'Pawdly Spot' can facilitate the discovery and matching of venues tailored to the owner's lifestyle, considering factors such as:

• Pet-specific menus or dedicated spaces.
• The brand's philosophy and atmosphere.
• The owner's personal taste (e.g., travel, gourmet food, design).

Shin Hye Lee, CEO of Pawdlers, stated, "We are developing Pawdly Spot with a target launch of March next year. We aim to provide accurate criteria, up-to-date information, and reviews based on real experiences so that guardians can confidently choose a pet-friendly location." She added, "Pawdly Spot is more than a simple location search; it is a location-sharing community service where users directly create location information, share their maps, and discover and recommend preferences. We will offer a service for finding pet-friendly spots that are near and perfectly aligned with users' tastes. Long-term, we plan to advance the service by integrating AI agent technology with the lifestyle data of pets and owners to automatically recommend customized locations to each guardian."

By Dong-jin Kim (kdj@itdonga.com)