'7% Discount Price' Seoul Sarang Gift Certificate, Now Available Online

Purchase limit of 700,000 KRW per person per month
Seoul City plans additional issuance of Seoul Sarang Gift Certificates (Metropolitan) within this month

The online-only 'e-Seoul Love Gift Certificate' will be issued from 10 a.m. on the 21st. Photo by Seoul City

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Kim Gun-chan] The 'Seoul Love Gift Certificate,' which can be purchased at a 7% discounted price, will this time be sold as an online-only gift certificate. Previously, the gift certificates (metropolitan) issued on the 14th were sold out within 74 minutes of the start of sales.

According to Seoul City on the 21st, the online-only 'e-Seoul Love Gift Certificate' will be issued from 10 a.m. on the same day. The total issuance scale of the e-Seoul Love Gift Certificate, sold at a 7% discounted price, is 10 billion KRW.

Individuals can purchase in units of 10,000 KRW within a monthly limit of 700,000 KRW and can hold up to 2 million KRW. Gift certificates can be purchased at a 7% discount through Seoul Pay Plus, Shinhan SOL, T-money Pay, and Money Tree apps.

Unlike the Seoul Love Gift Certificate sold out on the 14th, the e-Seoul Love Gift Certificate can be used only online without distinction by autonomous districts. It can be used at the small business exclusive section 'e-Seoul Love Shop#' within the online shopping mall 11st, and at delivery apps participating in the 'Zero Delivery Union' (Wemakeprice O, Ttaenggyeoyo, Meokkebi, Mamma Meokja, Ro Market). The small business exclusive section e-Seoul Love Shop#, affiliated and operated with 11st, hosts about 30 million products from approximately 68,000 small businesses.

On the morning of the 14th, access to the 'Seoul Pay' app was delayed or unavailable due to a surge of users trying to purchase the 'Seoul Love Gift Certificate.' Photo by Reader Provided.

Citizens' interest in the Seoul Love Gift Certificate, issued to reduce the burden of rising prices, is intense. This gift certificate can be used in any of the 25 autonomous districts, with a monthly purchase limit of 400,000 KRW per person and a holding limit of up to 1 million KRW.

The gift certificates issued on the 14th, totaling 25 billion KRW, were sold out within 74 minutes of the start of sales. At that time, the number of waiting users accessing the Seoul Pay Plus application reached as high as about 180,000. On that day, as many citizens tried to purchase the gift certificates simultaneously, there were frequent issues such as inability to access the app or delays in waiting order.

Complaints such as "The wait was too long, and I was automatically logged out while waiting. It was just a waste of time," and "I just watched the waiting screen for over an hour and ended up with nothing," were posted on online communities and social networking services (SNS).

Seoul City plans to issue additional Seoul Love Gift Certificates (metropolitan) within this month. Han Young-hee, Seoul City's Labor, Fairness, and Coexistence Policy Officer, said, "Considering the high demand for the Seoul Love Gift Certificate (metropolitan) issued on the 14th, we plan to issue additional certificates within this month," and added, "We also plan to issue Seoul Local Love Gift Certificates (autonomous districts) in September." On the 13th, Seoul City announced an additional budget plan to increase the issuance amount of Seoul Love Gift Certificates by 16.6 billion KRW, bringing the total issuance to 212 billion KRW.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.