Hotels and Air Tickets Sold Out Instantly... Travel Industry Cuts Ties with Timeff

Timon and Wemakeprice Apps Have No Travel or Leisure Items
Qoo10 Affiliate Interpark Commerce Draws the Line
CEO Gu Young-bae Vows Normalization Through Merger
Industry Calls It "Absurd Talk" and Expresses Outrage

As TMON and WEMAKEPRICE caused delays in seller settlements and filed for corporate rehabilitation procedures, the travel industry, which suffered relatively large damages, has withdrawn all products handled on these platforms. Some sellers are also distancing themselves from brands linked to Qoo10 Group, the parent company of 'Timef', in an effort to prevent consumer confusion. There are prospects that the declaration by Koo Young-bae, CEO of Qoo10, who said, "If given the opportunity, we can recover 100% of the damages," is unlikely to be realized.

Koo Young-bae, CEO of Qoo10 Group, is attending an emergency inquiry related to the 'Timon and Wemakeprice settlement and refund delay incident' held at the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee on the 30th. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

According to the related industry on the 31st, currently on the TMON application, product lists available for consumers to purchase in multiple categories such as fashion, beauty, food, and digital are partially exposed, but in the travel and leisure categories, most sellers who had been listed have withdrawn their products. Major travel agencies have already stopped selling overseas travel package products and terminated contracts, and accommodation or activity items have also disappeared, leaving the category virtually empty. While competitor platforms still offer water play-related tickets, which are in high demand during the summer, these cannot even be found on Timef.

An industry insider said, "Companies that acted as agents for selling activity-related tickets have also stopped all sales of the products they operated because they did not receive settlement payments due to this incident." On WEMAKEPRICE, some fashion or food-related products are still available for payment, but only a few domestic travel products are registered in the travel and leisure category. WEMAKEPRICE stated, "The application is currently operating, but depending on the partner company's situation, delivery may be delayed, impossible, or payment may be canceled," and warned, "Customers may experience inconvenience during the refund process if orders are canceled."

Interpark Tour and Ticket operator Interpark Triple removed all links to shopping and book sections operated by Interpark Commerce, a subsidiary acquired by Qoo10, from its own homepage, judging that the brand value was being damaged due to the similarity in names.

This was a follow-up measure after terminating the contract to use the Interpark brand. Previously, there were four links in total: tour and ticket operated by Interpark Triple, a Yanolja subsidiary, and shopping and books operated by Interpark Commerce. An Interpark Triple official explained, "We decided to stop using the brand because Interpark Commerce seriously damaged the brand value of Interpark." They also emphasize to consumers that Interpark Triple is a separate company with no relation to Interpark Commerce.

As travel and leisure sellers accelerate efforts to 'erase Timef', the platform normalization and seller-consumer damage recovery plans announced by CEO Koo are increasingly likely to remain empty promises. Earlier, he appeared at the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee inquiry on the TMON and WEMAKEPRICE unsettled payment incident and said, "The only way to solve this incident is to merge TMON and WEMAKEPRICE and quickly restructure to create a profit structure," adding, "If given a little help, I am confident that we can normalize again and fully recover the damages."

A travel industry official said, "In a situation where market trust is completely lost, what use is a merger, and even if (the normalization plan) succeeds, which sellers would re-list there?" adding, "It is such an absurd statement that there is no sincerity felt regarding the resolution of the incident."