---
title: 'The Market Leader Lost Money Last Year: A Financial Study of PHOTOISM’s Parent Company 서북'
url: https://joelin.cc/en/p/9563
source: https://joelin.cc/en/p/9563
lang: en
pubDate: '2026-10-12'
date_modified: '2026-10-12'
description: 'A study of PHOTOISM and parent company 서북: its FY2025 loss, growing reliance on IP frames, overseas subsidiaries and partners, store counts, founders, and IPO plans.'
author: joe
ai_role: ai_only
translation_of: /p/9563
mentions:
  - name: KOSDAQ
    sameAs:
      - https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q491503
---

# The Market Leader Lost Money Last Year: A Financial Study of PHOTOISM’s Parent Company 서북

## Summary

This article examines Korea’s leading photo booth brand by market share, PHOTOISM, and its parent company 서북 (Seobuk). Financially, FY2025 revenue reached ₩60.44 billion, but the company recorded an operating loss of ₩6.34 billion, and equity shrank to ₩4.49 billion. IP frames’ share of revenue rose from 38% to 68.8%. The company returned to profit in the first half of 2026 and filed for KOSDAQ preliminary listing review on September 21. Internationally, it has wholly owned overseas subsidiaries in only five markets: Japan, the United States, Singapore, China, and Taiwan. Local partners operate in Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and other markets, but headquarters releases artist frames worldwide simultaneously. In the first half of 2026, overseas IP content revenue of ₩10.78 billion far exceeded overseas franchise revenue of ₩800 million. The article also compiles official store counts by country alongside listings on photobooth.joelin.cc, founder 김민석’s background—he was born in 1994—and the management team, company registration details, and a 2019–2026 timeline.

### Key facts

- PHOTOISM’s FY2025 revenue was ₩60.44 billion, up 13.7%, but an operating loss of ₩6.34 billion marked its first year in the red.
- Rapid growth in content revenue became the growth engine: IP frames’ share rose from 38% to 68.8%. A 35% decline in franchise revenue indicates a slowdown in new store openings.
- Its ownership structure is distinctive: an SM Entertainment investment arm and a YG-affiliated fund invested in 2024–2025, tying the IP supply side to the company through equity.
- Direct overseas operations outperformed the agency model: the Japanese subsidiary generated ₩2.7 billion in revenue in 2024, far exceeding an agent’s ₩100 million. After two IPO delays, the company filed for KOSDAQ preliminary listing review on September 21, 2026.
- It has only five wholly owned overseas subsidiaries—Japan, the United States, Singapore, China, and Taiwan—according to the DART 2026 half-year report. Local partners operate in Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Mexico, and other markets.
- In the first half of 2026, overseas IP content revenue was ₩10.78 billion, while overseas franchise revenue was just ₩800 million. IP content, rather than franchise fees, accounts for the bulk of overseas revenue.
- Founder 김민석 was born in 1994, studied economics at Soonchunhyang University, and owns about 70%. Deputy CEO 권정수, who oversees overseas operations, is his older paternal cousin.

The original Chinese article was published on August 6, 2026, based on company research completed that day, and was subsequently updated through September 25, 2026. The financial figures, market data, and research findings below reflect that historical snapshot.

If you have taken one of those monochrome four-cut self-service photos in Korea, chances are you took it at PHOTOISM (포토이즘). It is Korea’s largest self-service photo booth brand by store count. In July 2026, the company officially announced that it had surpassed 1,000 stores worldwide.

I had thought of it as a company “preparing to go public, flush with funding, and rapidly expanding its global footprint.”

Then I pulled up its parent company’s financial reports and realized that I needed to rewrite that understanding completely.

This article covers four things:

1. What this company really sells is not photography.
2. Its 2025 financial results showed a loss.
3. It enters more than a dozen countries in different ways, but the underlying revenue mechanism is the same.
4. Its Taiwan operations underwent a structural change in April 2026.

The second half also compiles store counts by country, the founder and management team, company registration details, and a historical timeline.

Along the way, I will share a method for looking up the financial reports of unlisted Korean companies. Many people assume these reports are unavailable. They are actually accessible.

![Article cover: PHOTOISM parent company 서북’s FY2025 financial highlights—revenue of ₩60.44 billion, up 13.7% year over year; an operating loss of ₩6.34 billion, its first annual loss; and IP frames’ share of revenue rising from 38% to 68.8%](https://image.joelin.cc/cdn-cgi/imagedelivery/0xu8EsaSar9n3zUKY5d7xw/joelin/2026-09/photoism-seobuk-fy2025-hero/hero)

![PHOTOISM’s former lowercase serif wordmark, used from 2020; the July 2026 rebranding introduced a new uppercase sans-serif wordmark, shown in the official post screenshot in Section 6](https://image.joelin.cc/cdn-cgi/imagedelivery/0xu8EsaSar9n3zUKY5d7xw/joelin/2026-09/brand-logo-photoism/w=180,h=72,fit=pad,background=%232b2b2b)

## 1. The table that changed my understanding

First, the company’s identity: PHOTOISM is operated by 주식회사 서북 (Seobuk Co., Ltd.), an unlisted company. All figures below come from its sixth annual business report, submitted to Korea’s Financial Supervisory Service on March 31, 2026, and corrected on June 22, 2026. This is the official, audited filing.

On a consolidated basis:

| | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Revenue | ₩36.30 billion | ₩53.16 billion | ₩60.44 billion |
| Operating profit | ₩3.27 billion | ₩5.66 billion | −₩6.34 billion (turned to a loss) |
| Net profit for the year | ₩2.95 billion | ₩3.39 billion | −₩8.76 billion (turned to a loss) |
| Total equity | ₩9.58 billion | ₩13.10 billion | ₩4.49 billion |
| Total liabilities | ₩19.62 billion | ₩40.35 billion | ₩55.71 billion |

Revenue was still growing, up 13.7%, but profitability collapsed, equity shrank to ₩4.49 billion, and the implied liabilities-to-equity ratio reached approximately 1,241%.

The separate-company accounts (별도) tell the same story: FY2025 revenue of ₩56.94 billion, an operating loss of ₩7.40 billion, and a net loss of ₩9.58 billion.

These results directly affected its IPO plans, which I will discuss in Section 5.

First, a point about source discipline. Korean media widely cite FY2024 figures of “₩51.5 billion in revenue / ₩7.0 billion in operating profit / ₩6.2 billion in net profit,” attributing them to the SME information system. But the official filings show:

| FY2024 | Revenue | Operating profit | Net profit |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Widely cited by Korean media | ₩51.5 billion | ₩7.0 billion | ₩6.2 billion |
| Official filing, consolidated | ₩53.16 billion | ₩5.66 billion | ₩3.39 billion |
| Official filing, separate-company | ₩51.01 billion | ₩5.95 billion | ₩3.69 billion |

None of the three sets match. I consistently use the official filings as the authoritative figures and identify the source when citing media numbers as part of the “market narrative.”

## 2. A methodological aside: How to find financial reports for unlisted Korean companies

This section is for anyone else researching the Korean market. Knowing this method saves a great deal of effort.

Many people assume that “you cannot find financial reports for unlisted companies.” That assumption does not hold in Korea. Companies subject to external audit—those meeting specified thresholds for assets, revenue, or employee numbers—are legally required to submit business reports and audit reports. These are publicly available through DART, the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure system. That is how I found 서북.

Here is the process I actually followed:

1. Open the company’s official website and find its “공시정보” page, meaning disclosure information. Korean companies commonly have a financial announcement or disclosure page on their websites. The value of this first step is confirming the company’s formal legal name and business registration number: the brand name, PHOTOISM, often differs from the legal entity name, 서북. Searching the disclosure system directly for the brand may return nothing.
2. Search DART, at dart.fss.or.kr, using the formal legal entity name. Look for “사업보고서,” the annual business report, which contains the most comprehensive information.
3. Focus on four sections: “회사의 연혁” (company history, with individual records of fundraising and subsidiary formation), “주요 제품 및 서비스” (revenue by product), “매출 및 수주상황” (domestic and overseas sales), and “주주에 관한 사항” (shareholder information).
4. Reports combine HTML and PDF material. For large files, I recommend downloading them and extracting the full text with text-processing tools. Do not rely solely on the web summary: many crucial tables are in the attachments.

The value of this approach is that it turns “I heard” into “audited figures.” Every major judgment later in this article was drawn from those four sections.

## 3. What it really sells is not photography

This was the most valuable table I found in this research: revenue by product in the business report’s “주요 제품 및 서비스” section.

| Division / product category | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 콘텐츠서비스 (content services, including IP frames) | ₩13.82 billion (38.1%) | ₩28.98 billion (54.5%) | ₩41.59 billion (68.8%) |
| 상품 및 제품 (merchandise / machines and consumables) | ₩11.99 billion (33.0%) | ₩12.37 billion (23.3%) | ₩8.67 billion (14.3%) |
| 프랜차이즈 (franchising) | ₩8.60 billion (23.7%) | ₩9.30 billion (17.5%) | ₩7.25 billion (12.0%) |
| Other | ₩1.10 billion (3.0%) | ₩1.33 billion (2.5%) | ₩1.92 billion (3.2%) |
| Food and beverage division | ₩790 million (2.2%) | ₩1.18 billion (2.2%) | ₩1.01 billion (1.7%) |
| Total | ₩36.30 billion | ₩53.16 billion | ₩60.44 billion |

In two years, content went from roughly one-third to two-thirds of revenue, while both franchising and merchandise declined in absolute terms.

For a self-service photography company, two-thirds of revenue does not come from taking photographs. That is itself a competitive moat: what competitors must replicate is the content library, not the machines.

Breaking it down further into domestic and overseas sales:

| | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Domestic sales | ₩32.54 billion (89.7%) | ₩40.23 billion (75.7%) | ₩34.46 billion (57.0%) |
| Overseas sales | ₩3.76 billion (10.3%) | ₩12.93 billion (24.3%) | ₩25.98 billion (43.0%) |
| — Of which: overseas content sales | ₩1.01 billion | ₩5.80 billion | ₩15.61 billion (+169%) |
| — Of which: domestic franchise sales | ₩7.64 billion | ₩8.44 billion | ₩5.51 billion (−35%) |
| — Of which: domestic photography services | ₩6.14 billion | ₩6.65 billion | ₩5.70 billion (−14%) |

Three interpretations:

1. The growth engine has changed completely. What sustained FY2025’s 13.7% growth was an increase of approximately ₩9.8 billion in overseas content sales. Over the same period, domestic franchising, photography, and merchandise together fell by roughly ₩6.0 billion. This is not an overall revenue decline caused by a fading craze. The domestic core business is receding, and overseas IP content is filling the gap.
2. The 35% decline in franchise revenue is the signal that deserves the most attention. Franchise revenue comes from “fit-out work, kiosks, and photo paper supply during the store-opening stage.” A decline indicates that the pace of new openings has slowed significantly. The domestic Korean franchise engine is losing momentum.
3. The loss was caused by expenses, not revenue. In 2025, the company simultaneously rolled out four new brands—PLAY flagship stores, SNAPISM photocards, GET-YA unmanned stores, and WAKU WAKU staffed multi-format stores—established subsidiaries in Singapore and the United States, and launched a dedicated app. It was an expansion round with several bets placed at once, and all the bills arrived in FY2025.

## 4. Why was it able to win? Four evidence-based explanations

To be clear, it did not have a first-mover advantage. The pioneer was 인생네컷: the brand launched in 2017, and its operator was established in 2018, two years before 서북’s legal entity. Nor did it have the largest capital base—PHOTOGRAY is backed by listed company APR. The technological barriers are almost nonexistent. Yet PHOTOISM still won.

① It changed its business model from “selling photography” to “selling IP content,” and it was the only one to make that transition successfully.  
The evidence is the table above: 38.1% → 54.5% → 68.8%.

② The IP supply side became tied to it through equity ownership.  
This is the strongest structural explanation, in my view. The business report’s company history records each Series A investor individually. Two entries are:

- December 2024 follow-on round: 주식회사 에스엠컬처파트너스 (SM Culture Partners, an SM Entertainment-affiliated venture capital firm).
- January 2025 follow-on round: IBK-와이지 K-컬처 신기술투자조합 (a YG-affiliated K-Culture fund).

Investment entities associated with two major entertainment agencies, SM and YG, entered its shareholder register directly. This goes beyond being good at negotiating deals: it brings the IP supply side into the company through equity. When those investors appear on your shareholder register, “whose frames you can obtain” ceases to be a commercial term that must be renegotiated from scratch every time.

③ It built a system that addressed IP owners’ trust problem.  
The company developed its own cloud-based IP management system, giving rights holders real-time sales monitoring and protection against misuse. The real bottleneck in IP licensing has never been negotiation. It is rights holders’ reluctance to entrust their IP to a distribution channel whose accounts they cannot see and whose unauthorized printing they cannot control. Whoever builds that trust infrastructure first gains access to the content that follows.

The company’s own wording is precise: “The barriers to entering a simple self-service photography business are low, but an IP-based structure naturally creates barriers to entry.”

Its IP categories have also long extended beyond K-pop. The business report says they now include Netflix, Disney, Webtoon, and sports stars. Its intellectual property portfolio comprises 136 trademark rights—107 domestic and 29 overseas—15 design rights, and 8 patents.

④ It chose the more operationally demanding route overseas.  
This offers an unusually clear comparison: the same period, the same industry, two different models.

| | PHOTOISM (서북) | 인생네컷 (엘케이벤쳐스) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Overseas model | Establish subsidiaries for direct operations; Photoism Japan is wholly owned | License local agents |
| Japan performance | Japanese subsidiary revenue grew from less than ₩600 million in 2022 to ₩2.7 billion in 2024 | The affiliated company responsible for Japan and Taiwan generated ₩100 million in revenue in 2024 |
| FY2024 revenue / operating profit | ₩53.16 billion / ₩5.66 billion | ₩19.0 billion / −₩4.8 billion (turned to a loss) |
| IPO | After two delays, filed for KOSDAQ preliminary review on September 21, 2026 | Effectively abandoned |

An asset-light licensing model leaks value under an IP revenue-sharing structure: you can collect a percentage, but you cannot control the experience or misuse, and those are precisely what IP owners care about. The pioneer chose the lighter route. Five years later, its equity had been eroded.

⑤ It timed the product-generation shift well, though this is the weakest explanation.  
Early on, it established a recognizable identity through “black-and-white self-service photography,” using “professional photographers’ parameter settings” to create a tangible, unretouched look. That was a ticket into the market rather than a moat: PHOTOGRAY and 하루필름 could do it too.

But another point must be made at the same time: cracks appeared in this market leader in 2025. Domestic franchise revenue fell 35%, total domestic revenue fell 14.3%, the company recorded a full-year loss, and equity was down to just ₩4.49 billion. “How it became number one” and “whether it can stay number one” are separate questions. It is now a company undergoing a high-risk transformation.

### An aside: It did not start in Seoul

A common claim is that the company “started in Seoul in 2020.” Both parts need correcting:

- The brand preceded the legal entity by a year: Photoism STUDIO launched in September 2019, while 서북 was not incorporated until March 2020.
- Its registered head office is in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, and remains there today. It has only an office in Seoul. Founder 김민석 studied economics at Soonchunhyang University, whose campus is in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, right next to Cheonan.

Korea’s largest self-service portrait studio chain comes from a regional city and was founded by a graduate of a regional university. This helps explain why its approach was “a franchise engine plus distribution density” rather than “raise money and burn cash to build a brand.” It did not take outside funding for the first time until September 2024.

The founder also has absolute control of the equity: 김민석 alone owns 70.08%, rising to 75.21% when relatives are included. Three financial investors together hold about 20.7%, with none individually holding a stake large enough to confer veto-level power. There are only 13 shareholders in total.

## 5. IPO plans: Two delays, followed by a September 2026 filing

As of September 2026, the position of “first self-service portrait studio to go public” remained vacant, but 서북 had reached the doorstep.

| Date | Plan at the time |
| --- | --- |
| November 2024 | Selected NH 投資證券 as lead underwriter |
| September 2025 | Planned to file for preliminary review after the Chuseok holiday, targeting a listing in early 2026 |
| January 2026 | First delay: shifted to filing in the first half of 2026 and listing in the second half; target market capitalization of approximately ₩150 billion; the official reason was to “first demonstrate results from the new U.S. IP business” |
| June 2026 | Second delay: preliminary review filing “in the second half of 2026 at the earliest, or the first half of 2027 at the latest”; the reason was explicitly described as a “sharp decline in operating performance” |
| September 21, 2026 | Filed with the Korea Exchange for KOSDAQ preliminary listing review, with NH 投資證券 as lead underwriter; planned listing of 12,632,600 shares and public offering of 2,600,000 shares, according to the Korea Exchange’s KIND preliminary review list |

Given its FY2025 losses, the only remaining route was the special listing provision for companies that had not yet achieved profitability, and the review approach for that route had recently become stricter. This was my assessment in June 2026. By the September filing, the company had submitted a half-year report showing a return to profit. Public information does not reveal which listing requirements it would actually use. Filing means only that the application has been submitted; the review outcome was still pending.

For comparison, 인생네컷’s operator recorded losses in both 2024 and 2025. Its IPO was effectively off the table, and its pre-IPO funding round also failed to attract investment.

There were, however, signs of stabilization in 2026. First-quarter consolidated revenue was ₩15.7 billion, with operating profit of ₩1.5 billion, compared with ₩13.2 billion and ₩300 million a year earlier. The company had already returned to profit for the quarter. The half-year report submitted in August 2026 provided a fuller picture: first-half consolidated revenue of ₩35.69 billion, operating profit of ₩4.11 billion, and net profit of ₩4.83 billion. Equity recovered from ₩4.49 billion at the end of FY2025 to ₩9.36 billion.

Staffing figures align with this picture. Public information showed 46 hires and 78 departures over the preceding year, with headcount declining 11.2% in December 2025. The timing coincided exactly with the expense restructuring.

## 6. A multinational leader: How many stores it has in each country, and how it enters each market

The conclusion first: PHOTOISM does not use the same approach in every country. It has established its own companies in only five overseas markets—Japan, the United States, Singapore, China, and Taiwan. Most other markets are operated by local partners. Regardless of who operates the stores, however, artist frames are released centrally by Korean headquarters. What it really exports is the content library, not the stores.

### Store counts by country: Separate official figures from this site’s listings

| Market | Official figure or public list | Listed on this site |
| --- | --- | --- |
| South Korea | Official store locator: 582 (August 6); Fair Trade Commission: 568 at the end of 2025 | 541 (August 29) |
| Japan | Official Shop List: 103 addresses, September 15 version | 107 (September 25) |
| Indonesia | Official Linktree: 28 | 28 (September 21) |
| Vietnam | Official Linktree: 26 | 26 (August 30) |
| Taiwan | Official Instagram bio: 13 stores | 21 (July 23, including locations inside other stores) |
| Philippines | Official Linktree: 14 | 8 (September 22; incomplete coverage) |
| Thailand | Official Linktree: 9 | 9 (September 22) |
| Malaysia | No store count listed | 6 (September 22) |
| Hong Kong | Official Instagram bio: 3 stores | 4 (September 21) |
| Macau | No store count listed | 2 (September 21) |
| Singapore, Brunei, Laos | 1 each | 1 each |
| Global | Officially more than 1,000 stores (July 2026); Korean media: 26 countries and approximately 370 overseas stores (November 2025) | The Americas and Europe are not covered |

All dates in the table are in 2026. The right column shows the number of locations listed on photobooth.joelin.cc, with verification dates in parentheses. These are not official nationwide totals. Verification dates also differ by country, so the figures cannot be added together to produce a global total. Every official list in the left column was revisited on September 25, 2026. The Korean Fair Trade Commission’s 568 stores combine the BOX, COLORED, and STUDIO formats: 533 franchised stores and 35 directly operated stores.

There are only two discrepancies between the columns for which I can explain the cause. In Taiwan, this site also counts machines inside 秀泰影城 cinemas and K-MONSTAR stores as locations, while the official bio lists only standalone stores. In the Philippines, this site’s coverage is incomplete: the official list has 14 stores, while this site has only 8.

For Korea’s 582 versus 541 and Japan’s 103 versus 107, the collection dates and deduplication methods differ. This site deduplicates by store name plus address. I have not compared the records individually, so I do not attribute the discrepancies to a specific cause.

Country-by-country locations and opening hours are available on the photo booth information site’s [PHOTOISM brand page](https://photobooth.joelin.cc/brand/photoism/).

### Market entry methods: Only five overseas markets have company-owned entities

| Market | Entry method | Operating entity |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Japan | Wholly owned subsidiary; also rents and sells machines to outside operators | 株式会社Photoism Japan, corporate number 3011001150904, established November 8, 2022, in Shibuya, Tokyo |
| Taiwan | Initially a local agent; a wholly owned subsidiary was established in 2026, and both companies still exist | 宜格文創有限公司, unified business number 94086917, established July 2023 in Taichung → 拍圖一閃有限公司, unified business number 62216053, incorporation approved April 2, 2026, in Taipei |
| China | Wholly owned subsidiary established in 2026; before that, a local company was already operating the Chinese website and recruiting franchisees | Paituyishan (Guangzhou) Brand Management, established March 3, 2026, in Tianhe, Guangzhou; 非常合拍（厦门）品牌管理有限公司 |
| United States | Wholly owned subsidiary | PHOTOISM GLOBAL, INC., Delaware |
| Singapore | Wholly owned subsidiary | PHOTOISM GLOBAL PTE. LTD., established June 13, 2025 |
| Indonesia | Local partner describes itself as a “regional partner” | PT Mitra Foto Abadi |
| Vietnam | Headquarters owns the local trademark; local media describe the operation as having “obtained franchise authorization directly from Korea” | Company name not found; general manager Nguyễn Thanh Sang |
| Philippines | Local operating team, also recruiting franchisees | Company name not found; a 2023 report identified Dominic Jang as CEO |
| Mexico | Joint multi-format store with a Korean K-pop retailer, operated by that retailer’s local subsidiary | 한터 멕시코, Hanteo Global’s Mexican subsidiary |
| Thailand, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Brunei | Have accounts labeled “Official”; operating companies not found | Not found |

The evidence behind this table has three levels. The subsidiaries in Japan, Taiwan, China, the United States, and Singapore come from the subsidiary details in the DART half-year report. Japan and Taiwan also have local government registration records. China’s 非常合拍 comes from the footer of photoism.cn. These are primary sources. Indonesia’s description comes from PT Mitra Foto Abadi’s own website. Vietnam (kenh14), the Philippines (Manila Bulletin), and Mexico (톱스타뉴스) are supported only by news reports and should be treated as leads. For Thailand, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, and Brunei, I found only their official country accounts.

Public information does not reveal the relationship between the two Chinese entities, and I will not speculate. The Taiwanese subsidiary’s Chinese name, 拍圖一閃, corresponds to the Chinese subsidiary’s romanized name, Paituyishan. Both were established in March 2026.

In Vietnam, PHOTOISM’s trademark—Class 41, certificate number 532632, applied for on February 21, 2022—is registered to SEOBUK Corp. In other words, headquarters owns the trademark, while a local operator runs the stores. This is consistent with reports describing franchise authorization.

### Regardless of the operator, headquarters releases the frames centrally

![Screenshot of a September 2026 post from PHOTOISM’s global official account, photoism.global: promotional artwork for collaboration frames featuring the character IP 가벼운 친구들 (Blowing Friends); the new PHOTOISM wordmark introduced in July 2026 appears at the top](https://image.joelin.cc/cdn-cgi/imagedelivery/0xu8EsaSar9n3zUKY5d7xw/joelin/2026-09/photoism-ig-global-character-frame/hero)

The post’s caption says, “This frame is available at ALL GLOBAL Photoism stores.” That means the frame is released simultaneously at every PHOTOISM store worldwide. During the five days from September 21 to 25, 2026, the same account published seven announcements of new artist or character frames. All five whose full captions I could read contained that same sentence. Screenshot from the official photoism.global Instagram account, September 22, 2026; [original post](https://www.instagram.com/p/DdlT5r7E4ut/), captured September 25, 2026.

This explains a pattern in the financial reports. In the first half of 2026, overseas sales accounted for 43% of 서북’s revenue. Overseas IP content revenue was ₩10.78 billion, while overseas franchise revenue was only ₩800 million, according to the DART half-year report. The formal account name for that table entry is “컨텐츠매출,” meaning content revenue; it is not a frame-by-frame revenue-sharing statement. I interpret it as consisting primarily of artist frames because the annual report describes this revenue category as content services including IP frames. The table also does not break the figures down by country, so each country’s contribution cannot be determined. What can be established is that overseas franchise fees are far smaller than content revenue.

Thus, although market entry methods vary, the direction of the money follows the same pattern: whether a store is opened by a subsidiary, agent, or franchisee, the frames are released centrally by Korean headquarters. Korean media, quoting the company, say Japan is its largest overseas market by store count, while China generates the most revenue.

### South Korea: Building its own dense network of street-level locations

For Korea’s three store formats, the official store locator showed 488 BOX, 77 COLORED, and 17 STUDIO locations on August 6, 2026, for a total of 582. This site’s district-by-district check on August 29, 2026, found 541.

Compared with an April 2025 report listing 447 BOX and 21 STUDIO locations, BOX had gained 41 stores, while the higher-priced STUDIO format had lost 4. That is consistent with the earlier figures showing a 35% decline in franchise revenue and a 14.3% decline in total domestic revenue: store count does not equal revenue.

The Seoul metropolitan area had 311 stores in total—133 in Seoul, 142 in Gyeonggi, and 36 in Incheon—accounting for 53.4%.

> ⚠️ There are three Korean store-count series, and I do not reconcile them: 582 in the official locator on August 6, 2026; 568 in the Fair Trade Commission’s year-end 2025 data; and 541 on this site on August 29, 2026. Their counting bases differ. Each is dated separately, and I do not take an average. “More than 1,000 stores” is a global figure and uses a different scope from the domestic figures.

### Japan: Six in ten locations use someone else’s distribution network

The August 3, 2026, version of Japan’s official Shop List contained 105 unique stores. Of these, 62, or 59%, were located inside existing amusement arcades. GiGO accounted for 37%, and namco / BANDAI-affiliated venues for 17%.

This is a completely different model from its Korean operations. In Korea, it builds a dense street-level network, finding sites and opening booths itself. In Japan, it uses a low-capital-expenditure model built on existing distribution channels, placing machines in venues that already have foot traffic. The Japanese subsidiary is also its largest overseas legal entity by assets, with total assets of ₩6.28 billion at the end of 2025.

### Taiwan: From an agent to direct operations in April 2026

This is the section I find most actionable for industry peers in Taiwan.

From 2023 to 2025, PHOTOISM’s Taiwan operations were entrusted to a local agent: 宜格文創有限公司, unified business number 94086917. Its incorporation was approved in July 2023 by the Taichung City Government. Its total registered capital was NT$150,000, and its registered address was the store address on Yizhong Street in Taichung. In other words, the Taiwan operation first landed on Taichung’s Yizhong Street, not in Taipei, and its operator was a locally based Taichung company with little capital.

Then, on April 2, 2026, a new company appeared in the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ business registration records:

| Item | Details |
| --- | --- |
| Company name | 拍圖一閃有限公司; foreign-language name in its articles of incorporation: Photoism Taiwan Co., Ltd. |
| Unified business number | 62216053 |
| Investment status | Overseas Chinese / foreign investment |
| Incorporation approval | April 2, 2026; registering authority: Taipei City Government |
| Total registered capital | NT$427,300 |
| Representative | LEE DON GYU |
| Corporate shareholder represented | Korean company Seobuk Co., Ltd., contributing 100% |
| Registered business activities | Photography; immersive experiential application services |

This company is 서북’s wholly owned Taiwanese subsidiary. The DART half-year report records its establishment date as March 6, 2026, approximately one month before Taipei City Government’s approval date. The difference may reflect the Korean side recording a resolution or application date.

Two interpretations:

1. This is a structural turning point for its Taiwan operations. 서북 moved from “entrusting operations to a local Taichung agent” to “establishing its own wholly owned subsidiary in Taipei.” This aligns with its approach in Japan, the United States, Singapore, and China, and elevates Taiwan into the group of directly operated markets.
2. For now, this is a foothold rather than a major deployment of capital. Registered capital is NT$427,300, the registered address is a company-address service shared by dozens of companies, and there are only two registered business activities. This is the standard sequence of a Korean investment entering a market: establish the legal entity first, add capital later. Japan provides a comparison: its subsidiary was established in 2022 and did not reach ₩2.7 billion in revenue until 2024.

The two entities currently coexist. When checked on September 25, 2026, both 宜格文創 and 拍圖一閃 retained approved-incorporation status. I found no public information on how agency rights would transition or whether existing stores would be transferred.

The official Taiwan Instagram bio currently lists 13 stores across Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung. The Taichung 勤美 store, opened in July 2026, bills itself as Taiwan’s largest and includes an official SNAPISM Korean-star photocard machine. SNAPISM was a new Korean business launched only in August 2025. Its arrival in Taiwan less than a year later suggests that Taiwan sits relatively high in the overseas rollout order.

## 7. The founder and management team

### Founder: 김민석 (金旼錫), born in 1994

The DART half-year report’s “임원 현황” section, covering executives, is straightforward: 김민석, born in December 1994, representative director responsible for overall management. The education field lists only “순천향대학교 경제학 학사,” a bachelor’s degree in economics from Soonchunhyang University. The experience field contains no roles other than his current position. He was approximately 25 when the brand launched in 2019.

He holds 7,396,410 shares, approximately 70.08%, giving him absolute control of the company. In the Japanese subsidiary’s company profile on the Japanese press release platform PR TIMES, the representative’s name is written as “金旼錫,” and registered capital is ¥9 million.

He has described the starting point of his entrepreneurial career in two public interviews:

- In a 2023 interview with 한국경제, he said he belonged to a generation familiar with photo sticker culture. His starting idea was to create a “사진가 없는 사진관”—a photography studio without a photographer. He judged that self-service studios had low opening costs and low technological barriers, making them a viable business.
- In a 2025 interview with 뉴데일리 (NewDaily)’s Chungcheong edition, the headline described him as “31세 장교 출신,” meaning a 31-year-old former military officer. The report said that after leaving the military, he considered studying abroad, finding a job, or attending graduate school before choosing entrepreneurship. In the early days, he assembled photography machines himself and gathered feedback on the street.

I did not find a personal LinkedIn page for him, nor did I find his military service branch or any other previous jobs.

### Management team: The founder, a classmate, a cousin, and a former YG U.S. representative

| Name | Position and responsibilities | Background disclosed in DART |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 김민석 | Representative director; overall management | Bachelor’s degree in economics, Soonchunhyang University |
| 권정수 | Deputy CEO, registered director; overseas operations and sales | Bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering, Konkuk University; previously worked at 天才教育 and as planning team leader at 창의와탐구; paternal cousin of the founder, a fourth-degree relative |
| 최병인 | Director, CXO; Contents & IP business | Bachelor’s degree in economics, Soonchunhyang University; attended the same university and department as the founder; an original director when the company was incorporated in 2020 |
| 정희섭 | Executive, CPO; platform development | Previously worked at Coupang, MyRealTrip, and GRIP Company |
| 정훈 | Division head; management strategy | Finance and accounting background; formerly an executive director at 테이스티나인 |
| 박태홍 | Non-executive director; management advisory | Team leader in SV Investment’s venture capital division; investor representative |
| 이주용 | Outside director; management advisory | Former director of YG Entertainment’s Americas and Europe business group; former representative of YG USA and YG Beijing |
| 전덕중 | Outside director; management advisory | Vice chairman of the Korea Entertainment Producers’ Association |
| 정진욱 | Outside director; management advisory | Certified public accountant and lawyer |

DART half-year report, “임원 현황,” as of June 30, 2026. Employee count: 158.

This table aligns with two earlier observations. Overseas operations are led by the founder’s cousin 권정수, while IP is led by his university classmate 최병인. The core team consists of family and classmates. Among the three outside directors added in June 2025 in preparation for the IPO, one had represented YG in the United States and Beijing, and another was vice chairman of the entertainment producers’ association. The board itself had taken on the shape of an IP business.

Inference and fact must remain separate: “taken on the shape of an IP business” is my interpretation. All positions and career histories above come directly from DART disclosures.

### An episode in management control

DART’s company history records an unusual sequence of leadership changes. 김민석 was representative director at incorporation in March 2020. 이성민 took over in April, followed by 조문배 in October. 김민석 did not return as representative director until August 2021 and has held the role since. I could not find background information on either of the two former representatives.

### Company registration details

| Item | Details |
| --- | --- |
| Company name | 주식회사 서북 (Seobuk Co., Ltd.; English business name added March 28, 2025) |
| Corporate registration number | 161511-0268312 |
| Business registration number | 671-88-01814 |
| Representative director | 김민석 |
| Registered head office | 충청남도 천안시 동남구 만남로 72, 3층 — 3rd floor, 72 Mannam-ro, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province |
| Establishment date | DART’s company overview states April 1, 2020; the company history in the same half-year report records both the head-office registration and the first directors’ appointments on March 18, 2020 |
| Registered industry | Manufacture of other optical equipment and cameras |

DART itself gives two establishment dates. The registered head-office address and first directors would normally appear together on the day of incorporation registration, so I lean toward March 18, 2020, being the incorporation registration date and April 1, 2020, being the start of business operations. This is an inference, however; a certified copy of the corporate register would be needed to confirm it.

Where to look: DART’s company overview, at dart.fss.or.kr, searching for “서북”; and the business information in the footer of the official website, photoism.co.kr.

## 8. Company history and milestones

| Year / month | Event | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| September 2019 | Unmanned premium self-service photography studio brand Photoism STUDIO launched, six months before the legal entity | DART company history |
| March 2020 | 주식회사 서북 incorporated, with its registered head office in Cheonan | DART company history |
| April 2020–August 2021 | Representative director changed twice; 김민석 returned on August 31, 2021 | DART company history |
| August 2020 | Unmanned self-service photography studio brand Photoism BOX launched, later becoming the core franchise format | DART company history |
| December 2021 | Photoism COLORED, featuring colored-background studios, launched | DART company history |
| February 2022 | Obtained venture enterprise certification (벤처기업) | DART company history |
| November 2022 | Wholly owned subsidiary Photoism Japan established, its first overseas legal entity | DART company history; Japan’s National Tax Agency |
| January 2023 | Unmanned self-service art archive photography studio brand PORT launched | DART company history |
| 2023 | Fair Trade Commission data: PHOTOISM’s three formats had 459 franchised stores alone, exceeding 人生四格’s combined 382 franchised and directly operated stores | Korean Fair Trade Commission franchise disclosure documents |
| July 2023 | Taiwanese local agent 宜格文創 established; Taiwan’s first store opened on Taichung’s Yizhong Street on February 8, 2024 | Ministry of Economic Affairs business registration; official Taiwan Instagram, verified by this site on August 6, 2026 |
| August 2024 | Official press release: at least 700 stores across 17 countries, including Korea | 서울신문, August 2, 2024 |
| September 2024 | Initial Series A round; first external fundraising since the company’s founding | DART company history |
| November 2024 | Selected NH 投資證券 as lead IPO underwriter | Korean media |
| December 2024 / January 2025 | Series A follow-on rounds; SM-affiliated venture capital firm and YG-affiliated fund invested | DART company history |
| May 2025 | Photoism PLAY, an entirely directly operated flagship-store brand, launched | DART company history |
| June 2025 | 2,000% bonus share issue and appointment of three outside directors in preparation for an IPO | DART company history |
| July 2025 | First overseas photoism PLAY opened in Shin-Okubo, Tokyo | Photoism Japan press release, PR TIMES |
| August 2025 | Photocard printing brand SNAPISM launched | DART company history |
| September 2025 | Selected as a “pre-unicorn” by the ministry responsible for SMEs | DART company history |
| November 2025 | Korean media quoted the company as operating in 26 countries, with approximately 370 overseas stores and approximately 500 domestic stores | 블로터, November 13, 2025 |
| December 2025 | FY2025 revenue of ₩60.44 billion; full-year results turned to a loss | DART annual business report |
| March 2026 | Wholly owned subsidiaries established in Guangzhou, China, and Taiwan | DART half-year report |
| June 2026 | Returned to profit in the first half, with operating profit of ₩4.11 billion | DART half-year report |
| July 2026 | Rebranding introduced a new wordmark and the slogan “Take a PHOTOISM”; official statement said more than 1,000 stores worldwide | 서울신문, July 6, 2026 |
| July 2026 | Opened a multi-format flagship store with Hanteo Global in Mexico City | 톱스타뉴스, July 7, 2026 |
| September 21, 2026 | Filed with the Korea Exchange for KOSDAQ preliminary listing review | Korea Exchange KIND |

Some dates within DART’s company history are inconsistent. The U.S. subsidiary is dated December 2025 in the history section, but February 3, 2025, in the subsidiary details of the same report. Singapore is dated August 2025 in the history section, but June 13, 2025, in the details. The table follows the company history, with the discrepancies recorded here.

Store-count milestones use two different scopes. The official press release figures of “700 stores in 17 countries” and “more than 1,000 stores” are global. The Fair Trade Commission’s 459 and 568 stores count only domestic Korean locations, and the former includes only franchises. These cannot be joined into a single growth curve.

## 9. What I could not establish

- A country-by-country breakdown of the 370 overseas stores across 26 countries: the business report does not disclose one, and the company has not published a complete list. The country figures above came from individually checking official country accounts and Linktree pages. I did not count locations country by country in the Americas, Europe, or Australia.
- The operating companies in Thailand, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, and Brunei: each market has an official account, but I could not find company names or registration numbers. Malaysia has a registered company named PHOTOISM SDN. BHD., but I could not establish whether it is related to 서북.
- The relationship between the two Chinese entities—the Guangzhou subsidiary and Xiamen’s 非常合拍—and the number of stores in China.
- The rights and obligations between 宜格文創 and 拍圖一閃, and whether existing Taiwanese stores would be transferred.
- The founder’s LinkedIn profile, military service branch, and other previous jobs; and which entity operated Photoism STUDIO when it launched in 2019.
- The exact incorporation registration date—March 18 or April 1, 2020—which requires checking the Korean corporate register.
- The detailed account breakdown behind the approximately ₩8.6 billion reduction in equity in FY2025: I used only the main text of the business report and did not examine the financial statement notes, so I do not speculate.

## 10. Further reading

- Another article from the same research batch, on the third-largest player in the segment, whose parent is a listed beauty giant: [The Original, Frozen, Then Rebooted: A Company Study of PHOTOGRAY and Its Parent APR](/p/9557)
- The pioneer it overtook: [Why Did the Pioneer Lose? A Company Study of 人生四格 Life4Cuts and Its Parent LK Ventures](/p/5324)
- Thirty years of industry context on the Korean side: [Thirty Years of Korean Photo Booths: From Sticker Photos in Department Stores to the First Self-Service Portrait Studio to File for an IPO](/p/9638)
- How the industry developed in Taiwan: [A Historical Report on Taiwan’s Photo Booth and Korean-Style Photo Booth Industry](/p/5848)
- Market changes across the entire preceding year: [Taiwan’s Photo Booth Industry: 2025 Annual Review](/p/8281)
- What the arcade distribution channels it uses in Japan look like: [More Than Four in Ten Japanese Photo Booths Are in Arcades: The Three-Level Division Between Manufacturers, Distribution Channels, and Brands](/p/9820)
- A long-established player in Japan: [The Transformation of Japanese Photo Booth Leader FURYU](/p/1918)
- Hong Kong’s leader takes a different route: [Hong Kong’s Photo Booth Business Does Not Open Stores: SNAPIO and 香港相機有限公司](/p/9584)
- Local leaders in Southeast Asian countries—by the number of venues listed on this site, PHOTOISM ranks first in none of these four countries: [Thailand’s Flashback](/p/9851), [Indonesia’s Selfie Time](/p/9850), [Malaysia’s KPIX](/p/9848), [Singapore’s Dollop Print Club](/p/9849)
- How to find machines in Korea, use them on-site, and retrieve photos on your phone: [A Guide to Korean Photo Booths](https://photobooth.joelin.cc/guide/korea-photobooth/)
- This brand’s stores and opening hours by country: [PHOTOISM brand page](https://photobooth.joelin.cc/brand/photoism/)

What it looks like on the ground: during the 2022 World Cup, I photographed [PHOTOISM COLORED putting the national team into its frames](/p/9629) in Korea.

## FAQ

### Which company operates PHOTOISM?

It is operated by Korea’s 주식회사 서북 (Seobuk Co., Ltd.), whose registered head office is in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province. Its representative director is 김민석, and its business registration number is 671-88-01814. It is separate from LK Ventures, the operator of 人生四格.

### Is PHOTOISM in Taiwan operated directly by Korean headquarters?

From 2023 to 2025, it was represented by Taichung-based 宜格文創有限公司. On April 2, 2026, 서북 established the wholly owned subsidiary 拍圖一閃有限公司 (Photoism Taiwan Co., Ltd.) in Taipei. Both companies currently retain approved-incorporation status. No public information explains how agency rights are transitioning.

### How many PHOTOISM stores are there worldwide?

In July 2026, the company officially stated that it had more than 1,000 stores worldwide. Korean Fair Trade Commission data show 568 domestic stores at the end of 2025. Country figures and verification dates appear in Section 6. This site’s listings are not official totals.

### Does PHOTOISM open its own stores in every country?

No. According to the DART 2026 half-year report, it has wholly owned overseas subsidiaries only in Japan, the United States, Singapore, China, and Taiwan. In Indonesia, PT Mitra Foto Abadi operates as a regional partner. The names of the local operating companies in Vietnam and the Philippines have not been publicly disclosed, but artist frames are released centrally by Korean headquarters in all these markets.

## Sources

Primary sources: government disclosures and official materials

- [DART, the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure system](https://dart.fss.or.kr/): 주식회사 서북’s sixth annual 사업보고서, submitted March 31, 2026, and corrected June 22, 2026; company history, business overview, revenue by product, domestic and overseas sales, shareholder register, subsidiary information, and summarized financial information.
- [DART 서북 half-year report, August 28, 2026](https://dart.fss.or.kr/dsaf001/main.do?rcpNo=20260828000517): company history, subsidiary details, domestic and overseas sales breakdown, and executive information; checked September 25, 2026.
- DART company overview: corporate registration number, establishment date, and industry; search “서북” at dart.fss.or.kr; checked September 25, 2026.
- [Korea Exchange KIND list of companies undergoing preliminary review](https://kind.krx.co.kr/listinvstg/listinvstgcom.do?method=searchListInvstgCorpMain): KOSDAQ preliminary review application filed September 21, 2026; checked September 24, 2026.
- [Korean Fair Trade Commission franchise disclosure documents](https://franchise.ftc.go.kr/mnu/00013/program/userRqst/list.do): year-end 2025 store counts for 포토이즘 / 포토이즘박스 / 포토이즘컬러드; checked August 28, 2026.
- [PHOTOISM’s official Korean website](https://photoism.co.kr): business information in the footer, checked September 25, 2026; official store locator, with 582 stores counted on August 6, 2026.
- [PHOTOISM Japan’s official Shop List](https://4cutphoto.com/gallery/): officially updated September 15, 2026; counted September 25, 2026.
- [Japan’s National Tax Agency corporate number publication: 株式会社Photoism Japan](https://www.houjin-bangou.nta.go.jp/henkorireki-johoto.html?selHouzinNo=3011001150904): checked September 25, 2026.
- [Ministry of Economic Affairs public business registration records: 宜格文創有限公司](https://findbiz.nat.gov.tw/fts/company/94086917) and [拍圖一閃有限公司](https://findbiz.nat.gov.tw/fts/company/62216053): rechecked through the business registration open-data API on September 25, 2026.
- [PR TIMES: Photoism Japan company profile and press release announcing the Shin-Okubo photoism PLAY opening](https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000005.000118348.html): checked September 25, 2026.
- [photoism.cn Chinese website](http://photoism.cn/): company name in the footer; checked September 25, 2026.
- [PT Mitra Foto Abadi’s official website](https://www.mitrafotoabadi.com/): checked September 25, 2026.
- [Vietnam trademark search: photoism, certificate number 532632, owner SEOBUK Corp.](https://vietnamtrademark.net/search?q=PHOTOISM): compilation of published data from Vietnam’s intellectual property office; checked September 25, 2026.
- Official country lists, counted September 25, 2026: [Indonesia](https://linktr.ee/photoismid), [Vietnam](https://linktr.ee/photoismvn), [Philippines](https://linktr.ee/photoism_ph), [Thailand](https://linktr.ee/photoism_thailand), [Taiwan Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/photoism_tw/), [Hong Kong Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/photoism_hongkong/).
- [Official photoism.global Instagram post](https://www.instagram.com/p/DdlT5r7E4ut/): published September 22, 2026; captured September 25, 2026.

Secondary sources: Korean and other national media

- [thebell, “[서북 IPO] PHOTOISM’s Listing Moves into Full Swing, a ‘Seismic Shift’ in the Self-Service Photography Market,” September 12, 2025](https://www.thebell.co.kr/): comparison of overseas operating models; Japanese subsidiary revenue growing from ₩600 million to ₩2.7 billion.
- [thebell, “[서북 IPO] PHOTOISM Delays Listing…Results from New U.S. Business Take Priority,” January 7, 2026](https://www.thebell.co.kr/): first delay.
- [서울경제, “Has the Four-Cut Craze Cooled? PHOTOISM’s Listing Pushed to Next Year,” June 10, 2026](https://www.sedaily.com/): second delay, FY2025 profit and loss, and first-quarter 2026 results.
- [블로터, “[IPO Watch] Aiming to Be the First Self-Service Photography Studio to List…Confident in Its IP Business Competitiveness,” November 13, 2025](https://www.bloter.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=647439): cloud-based IP management system, 370 overseas stores across 26 countries, Japan having the most stores, and China generating the most revenue.
- [서울신문, “PHOTOISM Undertakes Brand Rebranding,” July 6, 2026](https://www.seoul.co.kr/news/economy/2026/07/06/20260706500032): more than 1,000 stores worldwide and new brand identity.
- [서울신문, “PHOTOISM Presents Diverse K-Photo-Based Content at Korea House in Paris,” August 2, 2024](https://www.seoul.co.kr/news/life/2024/08/02/20240802500109): at least 700 stores across 17 countries.
- [한국경제 JOB&JOY interview with CEO 김민석, June 29, 2023](https://plus.hankyung.com/apps/newsinside.view?aid=202306281265d&sns=y): entrepreneurial starting point.
- [뉴데일리 Chungcheong, “김민석, the 31-Year-Old Former Military Officer Leading 서북,” May 10, 2025](https://cc.newdaily.co.kr/site/data/html/2025/05/10/2025051000084.html): founder’s background.
- [톱스타뉴스, “Hanteo Global and PHOTOISM’s Mexico Flagship,” July 7, 2026](https://www.topstarnews.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=16126202): multi-format store in Mexico.
- [kenh14 report on Vietnam’s photo booth industry, October 3, 2025](https://kenh14.vn/nganh-photobooth-dang-hot-nhat-viet-nam-song-nho-dieu-gi-2-tong-quan-thuong-hieu-dinh-dam-tiet-lo-toan-bo-215251003101100224.chn): Vietnamese franchise operations and general manager interview.
- [Manila Bulletin, June 30, 2023, Wayback archive](https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://mb.com.ph/2023/6/30/look-this-self-portrait-studio-is-from-korea): Philippine operating team and franchise recruitment.

Article keywords: PHOTOISM, 포토이즘, 서북, Seobuk, Korean photo booths, self-service photography studios, multinational franchising, IP frames, Photoism Japan, 拍圖一閃

Sources: The Chinese original was first published on 2026-08-06 and last updated on 2026-09-25. Data and observations retain the historical dates and markets stated in the article.