Seoul City Overhauls 7,000 'Public Service Reservations'... Non-Face-to-Face Fee Discounts

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[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government is completely overhauling and significantly expanding the ‘Public Service Reservation’ website and reservation services. The Public Service Reservation website is an integrated platform that allows online reservation and payment for public services provided by Seoul City, its affiliated organizations, and 25 autonomous districts.

According to Seoul City on the 15th, a public service reservation function will be newly added to the KakaoTalk AI counselor chatbot ‘Seoultok.’ By simply entering the desired content in the chat window, users can reserve a total of over 7,000 public services operated by Seoul City, ranging from sports facilities and rental venues to cultural and educational programs and municipal hospital treatments.

The new public service reservation system focuses on ▲ launching KakaoTalk chatbot ‘Seoultok’ reservation and consultation ▲ revamping the website optimized for smartphone environments ▲ introducing blockchain-based non-face-to-face verification for fee reduction eligibility.

Even those who are not members of the Public Service Reservation website can make reservations for public services through the newly established ‘Seoultok’ reservation service, as long as they have KakaoTalk. Since KakaoTalk is a platform used by many smartphone users in Korea, the public service reservation process is expected to be greatly simplified. In particular, chatbot reservations verify identity through the mobile phone number registered with KakaoTalk, so after the initial one-time user authentication, subsequent reservations can be made immediately without additional verification.

The website has also been revamped to optimize for smartphones, reflecting the increasing trend of smartphone reservations, and the usage procedures such as login and payment have been simplified. Customized menus such as location-based services and interest information settings have been significantly added. Communication services for the elderly and disabled, such as a direct link to the ‘Sign Language Interpretation Center’ that relays communication via text and video, are newly supported.

A ‘non-face-to-face qualification verification’ system based on blockchain technology will also be introduced. Currently, basic livelihood security recipients, persons with disabilities, and national veterans can receive fee reduction benefits when using public facilities, but they must obtain and submit related supporting documents when using the services, which is inconvenient.

The ‘non-face-to-face qualification verification’ allows eligible users for public facility fee reductions to authenticate themselves on the website and submit nine types of supporting documents digitally instead of paper documents. Since identity verification and electronic signatures are performed using blockchain technology that fundamentally prevents data forgery or alteration, personal information protection is also enhanced.

Lee Won-mok, Director of Smart City Policy at Seoul City, said, “We are currently facing a massive industrial ecosystem change called the Fourth Industrial Revolution along with changes in citizens’ daily lives due to COVID-19. We will improve services by applying the latest smart technologies appropriately so that citizens can conveniently reserve and use various facilities and educational and cultural services provided by Seoul City via smartphones. We will also continuously expand the available facilities and cultural content.”

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