Tag Archives: Foreigner Ghetto

Groupon Korea – putting foreign residents in the digital Korean ghetto?

Maybe I should cut them some slack since they just opened shop today, but I expect more from an international company like Groupon, particularly when other companies (Starbucks) addressed these problems already.

Groupon, at this time, won’t let non-Koreans register for their service in Korea. They require a national ID number (주민등록번호) as part of a name validation procedure (possibly for “real-name” requirements, but more likely to help the company get more info on their users). Foreigners do have registration numbers, but most companies haven’t figured out how to verify our names/numbers in these sign-up forms (Starbuck’s seems to have done so in their wifi access forms).

I’m not asking for an English interface. After all, we are in Korea, we should expect to operate in Korean. I am, however, asking that I not be treated as a non-entity when I am a long-term legal resident of Korea. I am absolutely sick of this treatment.

So, please, Groupon, fix this. Thank you.

%d bloggers like this: