"Considering Measures to Reduce Number and Price of Course Menus and Increase Reservation Capacity"
Over 110,000 netizens rushed to make reservations at Napoli Mafia's restaurant, the winner of Netflix's cooking competition show 'Black and White Chef,' causing the related application (app) to temporarily crash.
On the 10th, the restaurant reservation app 'Catch Table' opened reservations for the restaurant operated by Chef Kwon Seong-jun of Napoli Mafia starting at 10 a.m. More than 110,000 users flooded the app at the reservation time, resulting in the app becoming inaccessible and experiencing downtime for several tens of minutes. Currently, all reservations for the restaurant in October are fully booked. After the reservations closed, it was reported that some people began seeking scalped tickets.
Napoli Mafia, who appeared on Netflix's "Black and White Chef," is answering questions at the Netflix "Black and White Chef: Culinary Class War" press conference held on the 7th at Hotel Naru Seoul MGallery in Mapo-gu, Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]
In response, Napoli Mafia apologized via his Instagram, saying, "I received reports that the server crashed. More than 50,000 people tried to make reservations, and due to the app's physical limitations, it became unresponsive. I will protest and work to restore it quickly. This is the first time this has happened to me, so I am embarrassed and sorry."
He then corrected himself, saying, "It was not 50,000 but 100,000 people," and added, "I am very sorry. I will look for a solution. I am considering reducing the number of course menus and the price per person, and increasing the number of reservations."
He also posted a screenshot of a transaction post stating 'Purchasing Napoli Mafia restaurant for over 700,000 KRW for 2 people,' warning, "If caught scalping, the app will permanently blacklist the user, and the reservation deposit will not be refunded. We will also verify if the reservation holder is the actual person and provide guidance upon entry." He continued, "If you report scalped ticket transactions, we will take immediate action," and added, "We will give a reservation ticket to anyone who catches scalped ticket transactions."
Meanwhile, after the broadcast of 'Black and White Chef,' the number of searches and reservations for restaurants operated by the participating chefs has significantly increased. According to Catch Table, the search volume for 'Black and White Chef' chefs' restaurants rose 74 times compared to the previous week. The number of restaurant saves surged by 1884% during the same period.
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