No. 6 on the Korea Travel bestseller chart with only 2 ratings: a ten-year-old travel site rebranded as an AI European itinerary app
What it is You pick a few European city cards, and it uses a decade of Korean traveler route data to build a multi-city route, then produces a quote in won covering flights, hotels, trains and passes, selling a one-year toolkit and human-assisted booking.
Why it's up It isn't really trending: the Korea Travel bestseller chart has a low bar, and a few $39.99 in-app purchases are enough to reach the top 10; add the old app being pulled, the new app inheriting old accounts, and the name carrying the old brand, which moved legacy users over. In 10 days its rating count didn't move at all.
CHow you could follow Don't copy a generic AI itinerary planner. If you have travel guides or route data for a specific long-haul corridor, follow its "free AI route → one-time annual toolkit → human booking" structure and apply it to a different origin and destination.
- Data (updated daily) · First launched 2026-10-06 · Korean rating 2 · 11-08 charted in 1 stores
iOS · best category chart rank · by store Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 10 observations). Lower rank is higher; gaps mean it wasn't charted that dayiOS · rating count · Korea Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 10 observations). Apple doesn't publish download counts; rating growth is a proxy for downloads.
In Nov 6, "여행비서 스투비" (Stubby travel secretary) appeared at #6 on the Korea App Store Travel bestseller chart. A month after launch it had 2 ratings in total. This isn't a new product breaking through; it's a company that has been planning European routes for Koreans for 2013 years, which pulled its old app and relaunched under an AI-branded shell. Below: what it is, why the chart is misleading, where the money actually comes from, and what you can take from it.
A "buy it twice" review
The only review of this app in the Korean store was posted on Oct 23,5, 5 stars: "유럽여행은 이거 하나면 끝이예요! 두번 받으세요 👍" ("For European travel, this one is all you need! Get it twice 👍").
"Get it twice" reads less like a random user and more like a returning customer or someone at the company (inference). On Nov 5 it shipped version 1.7, with release notes that were very specific: "Pick one card and the next card changes accordingly" and "The home screen reorders by who you're going with and when: winter honeymoon shows Barcelona and Porto first, traveling with kids shows London and Paris first." The next day it reached #6 on the Korea Travel bestseller chart (App Store Korea, 11-06).
It went from 1.4 to 1.7 in two weeks, and the company is clearly pushing hard. Whether users are actually growing is another question.
What it is
In one line: you pick a few European city cards, and it gives you a route and a quote.
The App Store description describes this flow: flip through the places you want to go like postcards → choose who you're going with, when, and for how many days → it uses "1M travel-plan data points" to recommend how many nights per city and what to visit along the way → it outputs a quote: round-trip Incheon flights in 3 options, 3 hotels per city, train and bus fares between cities, a Swiss Travel Pass vs. regional tickets comparison, and a total price in won → then it tells you when to book each leg cheapest and whether a Eurail pass is worth it for your route.
It's made by 스투비플래너 (Stubby Planner), founded 2013 years ago. When Koreans searched "유럽여행 루트 짜기" (plan a European travel route) from 2016 to 2019, Naver blogs and Tistory were full of posts recommending it. It used to have its own iOS and Android apps; the old iOS app now returns nothing in the Korean or US stores, and the old Android package returns 404 on Google Play. The new app's name ends with "스투비플래너 최신판" (Stubby Planner latest version), and the Android description says directly: "You can log in with your existing Stubby Planner account."
Why #6 means nothing
Looking only at the 11-06 day, you'd think it's "holding #6 steadily". Here is its ranking on the Korea Travel bestseller chart over the 10 days, which tells a different story:
| Date | Rank | Version |
|---|---|---|
| 10-28 | 87 | 1.4 |
| 10-30 | 114 | 1.4 |
| 11-01 | 131 | 1.4 |
| 11-03 | 166 | 1.5 |
| 11-04, 11-05 | Outside the top 200 | – |
| 11-06 | 6 | 1.7 |
It slid steadily down, dropped off the chart, and then one day jumped to #6.
The reason is that this chart has a low bar. On the same day, #3 was Couchsurfing, #2 was the flight tracker Flighty, and #10 was Wanderlog. Wanderlog has only 239 ratings in Korea in total, and over these 10 days it bounced between #4 and #63. Over 10 days, the #6 spot changed hands 9 times between different apps. Its in-app prices are USD 39.99 (셀프팩, the self-pack toolkit) and 19.99 (AI credit reset), and a few sales a day is enough to reach the top 10 (inference). Its rating count didn't move in 10 days, so there's no visible sign of downloads growing.
So: it didn't "break out". The spot on the chart is a few orders from legacy users migrating, on a low-bar chart.
Where the money comes from: mostly not in the app
Its main payment entry is the web page trip.stubbyplanner.com, not the App Store (11-06 read):
| Product | Pricing | Payment method |
|---|---|---|
| 셀프팩 (self-pack toolkit) | 55,000 KRW | Valid for one year |
| AI Self-Pack (adds conversational AI scheduling) | 75,000 KRW | Valid for one year |
| AI Self-Pack Mid/Long-term (more AI credits, Eurail calculator) | 95,000 KRW | Valid for one year |
| Expert request (human advisors book on your behalf) | From ₩229,000 (10 days, 1 people estimated) | — |
Bottom of the Self-Pack page: "Payment is by bank transfer... no auto-renewal." Payment goes through bank transfer, activated after the funds arrive, with no automatic renewal. Not going through Apple means they skip the 30% cut.
On the human-booking tier, the page shows a row of buyer reviews that feel very real: "22 days, 2 people: without a planner I'd have been in a real rush" and "12 days, 2 people: honeymooned through Switzerland, Austria and Czechia via Stubby, happy with routes and lodging." Flight and hotel search pages likely carry booking-affiliate commissions (Agoda referrals are visible, commission rate unverified).
In other words, the App Store Top Grossing chart only sees the small slice of money that goes through in-app purchase. The real revenue is invisible from the outside.
Where users come from
- Ten years of search equity: old articles still rank on Naver, the old URL stubbyplanner.com redirects to the new site, and the landing page leads with App Store and Google Play download buttons.
- Old users moved over: the old App was pulled and the new App accepts old accounts, carries the old brand name, and people searching "스투비플래너" land directly in the new App.
- Their own content: @stubbyplanner on Instagram, Threads and Facebook keeps posting European routes and low-fare flight Reels like "1 January Europe round-trip flights" (audience is modest, about 7,500, unverified).
- Blogger posts: Naver bloggers wrote recommendation posts 2026 years ago. Sponsored trips are not ruled out.
- Almost nothing: 60 posts on X in the last 0 days, 0 TikTok results for the brand name, and no media coverage of the new App. A Self-Pack promo video on YouTube, published 2024 years ago in February, has 988 views.
These are things only an established brand has. Newcomers can't get them.
Who it's competing with
"AI plans your trip" is already crowded:
- Triple 트리플: 27,339 ratings on the Korean iOS store, claims tens of millions of users, also has AI scheduling, and earns from bookings.
- MyRealTrip 마이리얼트립: Korea's leading OTA. Its AI scheduling is a free traffic-driving feature.
- Wanderlog, Trip.com's Trip.Genie, ChatGPT, Gemini: global, free or cheap.
- A batch of Korean AI scheduling mini-Apps launched over the last 2025 to 2026 years (Tripple, Routeb, Triplog, Trapplan, etc.): a few to a few dozen ratings each.
Stubby differs from them in one way: vertical focus. It only does multi-city Europe trips departing from Korea, and it has ten years of data on "where other Koreans stayed a few nights and where they went next," plus quote sheets, booking timing, rail-pass calculations, and human booking. That can keep old users paying, but it isn't why it charted.
Three things worth learning
- Pick a scenario that is expensive, happens once a year, and is painful to plan. Multi-city independent travel in Europe fits: flights are pricey, there are many cities, and trains and rail passes are complicated. In this setting, "how other people actually went" data is more convincing than a generic AI-generated itinerary.
- Three-tier funnel: free AI gives a first route and one quote (the first quote is free, with a daily cap) → a one-time annual toolkit → high-priced human booking. Tools sell to people who want to do it themselves, human service sells to people who don't have time.
- How to relaunch an old product: the App name keeps the old brand, like "OO 최신판" (latest edition), old accounts can log in, and old domains redirect to the new site. This is the cheapest way to capture the existing user base.
If it were you
C. Worth learning from, not worth chasing. It charted not because it broke out, but because a low-bar chart met a ten-year-old brand's existing users. You don't have either of those, and "AI trip planning" is already a red ocean.
Who it's for: people who already have content, a community, or route data for a specific outbound destination: bloggers who've written a country's independent-travel guides for years, small travel agencies, visa or rail-pass agents, who want to turn that accumulation into a paid tool.
Who it's not for: anyone building a generic AI itinerary App from scratch (big companies give it away free, and Korean peers each have only dozens of ratings), or anyone who wants to judge a direction by App Store grossing charts (this chart can be charted with a handful of sales).
How to do it: follow its structure with a different "departure × destination" pair, for example Taiwan or Japan to Europe, mainland China to multi-city Japan, or Korea to Japan (inferred; I didn't check whether anyone already serves these routes). Start on the web, build "pick cities → route → quote sheet in local currency total" first, charge a one-time annual fee, then add human booking for high-ticket orders.
How to acquire users: rely on the guide content you already have and the search traffic it brings. Without that existing asset, publish six months of free guides and low-fare flight content first, build up search rankings, then start charging.
When to move before it's too late: no rush. Outbound travel has no clear window, but big companies' AI scheduling gets stronger every quarter, so the room for a vertical player shrinks the later you start.
What would show I got it wrong: over the next few weeks, if it holds a steady top 20 on the Korean travel grossing chart while its ratings start climbing (say to a few dozen in a month), that means new users are real and the AI quote-sheet format drives acquisition better than we assumed. Then the grade should go up.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one 트리플 Triple iOS 2017 Korean iOS store 27,339 ratings, claims tens of millions of users, has AI scheduling Triple is a global all-in-one OTA that earns from bookings; 스투비 only does multi-city Europe and sells an annual tool pass Wanderlog iOS 2019 239 ratings on the Korean store, bouncing between #4 and #63 on the travel grossing chart Global general-purpose scheduling subscription; 스투비 has Incheon-departure quotes, won-denominated totals, and Switzerland/Eurail pass calculations 마이리얼트립 AI 일정 Big-company features About 2025 Korea's leading OTA Scheduling is a free traffic feature; 스투비 charges for the scheduling itself ChatGPT / Gemini / Trip.com Trip.Genie Big-company features From 2023 huge General and free, but no live quotes, booking timing, or ten years of Korean traveler route data Korean AI scheduling mini-Apps like Trapplan, Tripnote, Tripple, and Routeb iOS 2025-2026 A few to a few dozen ratings each General scheduling/expense tracking; no Europe vertical, no quote sheets, no human booking 마이퍼스트가이드 / 투어라이브 iOS 2019-2021 Korean travel grossing chart #4/#1 Adjacent track: sells in-trip guide content for European travel, not pre-trip planning - Where users come from
- Verified Legacy brand / SEO equity: for 2016 to 2019 years, many Naver/Tistory posts recommended 스투비플래너; stubbyplanner.com redirects to the new site, and the landing page directs visitors to download the new App
- Verified Old user migration: the old Android package com.iselsoft.stubyplanner 404 and old iOS id1333435097 can't be found; the new App accepts the old ID to log in, and its name carries "스투비플래너 최신판" (latest edition)
- Verified Owned Instagram/Threads/Facebook content: @stubbyplanner keeps posting European route and low-fare flight Reels (e.g. 2026-11-01 Threads)
- Inferred Naver blogger recommendations: guavadiary wrote recommendations 2026 years ago; the blog carries a business-collaboration email, and no sponsorship disclosure was seen
- Inferred X/TikTok/media: x-radar shows 60 posts in 0 days, TikHub search shows 0 results, and the new App has no media coverage
Yeohaeng Biseo Stubby: Stubbyplanner latest edition (iOS id6804155900) research report
Research date 2026-11-06. Data sources: our appstore library (agent-im server, from 2026-10-28), iTunes lookup, official site trip.stubbyplanner.com, Google Play pages, Jina/Exa search, x-radar, TikHub.
One line
The Korean veteran site 스투비플래너 (Stubby Planner), which has done "European independent-travel route planning" for 2013 years, has relaunched its old App as an AI version: pick cards → recommended route → one quote sheet (flights/hotels/trains/rail passes) → itinerary → booking. Revenue comes from the "셀프팩" annual pass and the human "전문가 의뢰" booking service. It didn't actually "break out": the chart signal mostly comes from the extremely low bar of Korea's travel grossing chart, behind which a ten-year-old company migrated its existing users to the new App.
1. First, a correction to the recall data card
The data card says it "held #6 on the Korean travel grossing chart for 10 consecutive days." Our actual records in the library (appstore.chart_rank, kr / grossing / travel 6003) are:
| Date | Rank | Version |
|---|---|---|
| 10-28 | 87 | 1.4 |
| 10-29 | 98 | 1.4 |
| 10-30 | 114 | 1.4 |
| 10-31 | 126 | 1.4 |
| 11-01 | 131 | 1.4 |
| 11-02 | 143 | 1.4 |
| 11-03 | 166 | 1.5 |
| 11-04, 11-05 | Not on the chart (top 200) | – |
| 11-06 | 6 | 1.7 |
So over the first 7 days its rank steadily fell and dropped off the chart; then on 11-06 it suddenly jumped to #6. The "#6" on the data card is just the snapshot from the last day.
How low the bar is: on the same day, #3 on the Korean travel grossing chart was Couchsurfing, #2 was Flighty, and #10 was Wanderlog (the Korean store has only 239 ratings in total). Between 10-28 and 11-06, over those 10 days, #6 changed hands among 9 different Apps, and #10 changed 10 times (appstore.chart_rank). Wanderlog bounced between #4 and #63 over the same period. So for an App priced in-app at USD 39.99 (Self-Pack) / 19.99 (AI credit reset), a few purchases in a single day are enough to reach the top 10. Its ratings have stayed at 2, with 7 added in the last 0 days (appstore.app_day), so there's no sign downloads are rising.
2. Who they are: a ten-year-old brand in a new shell
- Company: STUBBY PLANNER Co., Ltd., founded in 2013 (RnDcircle company info). Its representative 백주흠 (Baek) was featured in an early 주간조선 article, "Package tours are disappearing," and signed a strategic partnership with 한인텔 (about 30k travel plans at the time, per newswire). The tech partner is ISELSOFT (iselsoft.co.kr, contact james.baek), run by the same representative, which lists "스투비플래너 컨시어지" as its own AI automation case (published 2026-01, underlying data "85만+ POI · 80만+ 여행계획").
- Old App: Android com.iselsoft.stubyplanner (Google Play now returns 404), and older company.stubby.pocket ("85만명 여행계획데이터"); the old iOS App id1333435097 fails lookup in both the kr and us stores. The new Android package com.iselsoft.agentstubby says in its description: "스투비플래너가 만든 새 앱이라 기존 스투비플래너 ID로 로그인 가능" (a new app built by Stubby Planner; log in with your existing Stubby Planner ID).
- The new App's name also signals the intent: the early App Store page title was "여행비서 스투비:유럽여행AI견적" (np store page), now changed to "여행비서 스투비:스투비플래너 최신판" (Stubby Planner latest edition). The goal is to catch older users searching the old brand name. The only review (10-23,5 stars) reads "유럽여행은 이거 하나면 끝! 두번 받으세요" (For Europe trips this one is all you need, get it twice), which sounds like an old user or an insider.
- Iteration is fast: within two weeks it went from 1.4 to 1.7 (11-05's 1.7 release upgraded the recommendation engine: pick one card and the next card adjusts to it, and the first screen is re-sorted by "who you're going with and when").
3. How it makes money
- Web version (selfpack): three tiers at 55,000 / 75,000 / 95,000 won, each "1 year(s) of access after purchase". Paid by bank transfer, no auto-renewal (trip.stubbyplanner.com/selfpack, read 2026-11-06).
- In-app purchases: 셀프팩 12 months (one-time payment) or 1 months (auto-renewing), plus AI 셀프팩 (conversational itinerary planning); the data card records prices of USD 39.99 / 19.99.
- Human "전문가 의뢰" (expert request): consultants design the route and book flights, hotels, transport and tickets for you, with AI plus human support during the trip; starts at 229,000 KRW (estimated for 10 days, 1 people), and the page carries many fairly convincing user reviews.
- Booking referrals: flight and hotel search (Agoda attribution visible on the page), likely earning affiliate commissions (unverified).
- Key point: the main paid entry point is on the web and paid by bank transfer, bypassing Apple. So the App Store Top Grossing chart can't reflect its real revenue; it only sees the small number of orders that go through IAP.
4. Competitors
| Product | Where | Launched | Scale | How it differs from the competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 트리플 Triple(인터파크트리플) | iOS/Android | 2017 | Korean-store iOS 27,339 ratings (appstore library); self-described 10M users, with AI itinerary planning | Triple covers the globe as a general OTA and earns from bookings; 스투비 covers only Europe, multi-city routes, and sells a toolkit |
| Wanderlog | iOS/Android/web | 2019 | 239 ratings in the Korean store; in the travel Top Grossing chart it bounces between rank 4 and 63 | A global itinerary tool on subscription; 스투비 has a Korea-departure lens (round trips from Incheon, KRW total prices, Swiss pass and Eurail pass calculations) |
| 마이리얼트립 MyRealTrip AI 일정 | iOS/Android/web | Trialed AI itinerary planning around 2025 years ago (official blog) | Korea's leading OTA | Itinerary planning is only a free feature that feeds bookings; 스투비 makes itinerary planning itself a paid product |
| AI from OTAs such as Trip.com's Trip.Genie | Big-company features | From ¥2023 | Big | Free and general-purpose; no data on "what other Korean travelers picked" |
| ChatGPT / Gemini | Big-company features | – | huge | Can generate an itinerary, but offers no live fare quotes, pass price comparisons, or booking-timing alerts, and has no decade of Korean route data |
| TripIt, Tripsy, 트랩플랜, 트립노트, 투플, 루트비 and others | iOS | 2009 to 2026 | Anywhere from a few to hundreds of ratings in the Korean store; many small AI itinerary Apps launched in the last 2026 years | All general-purpose planning or expense tools, none specialized in Europe, and none offer quotes or booking |
| 마이퍼스트가이드, 투어라이브 | iOS | 2019 to 2021 | Ranked #4 and #1 in the Korean travel Top Grossing chart | Adjacent track: European voice/video guides, selling content during the trip rather than pre-trip planning |
Takeaway: "AI plans your trip" is already crowded (big-company features, OTAs, a pile of Korean indie Apps). 스투비's difference is verticality: Europe only, multi-city, Korea-departure, backed by a decade of accumulated "how Koreans actually travel Europe" route data, plus "quote sheet + booking timing + Eurail pass math + human booking."
5. Where users come from
- Legacy brand and SEO inventory (confirmed): for 2016 to 2019 years there have been many Naver blog and Tistory posts recommending "유럽여행 루트 짜기 = 스투비플래너" (planning a Europe route = Stubby Planner). The old domain stubbyplanner.com now redirects straight to the new site, whose landing page prominently guides users to download the new App (App Store and Google Play links).
- Old-user migration (confirmed): the old App is delisted, the new App lets you log in with the old ID, and the name includes "스투비플래너 최신판."
- Owned social content (confirmed): the Instagram, Threads and Facebook account @stubbyplanner keeps posting Europe routes and cheap-flight Reels (e.g., 11-01 on Threads, the "1월 유럽 왕복 항공권" Reel); the follower count is small (the data card says about 7,500, not verified this time).
- Blogger posts (partly confirmed): Naver blogger guavadiary published a recommendation post 2026 years ago (the blog lists a business-cooperation email, so it may be a sponsored trip, but no explicit sponsorship disclosure was seen).
- YouTube: a 셀프팩 promo video was published 2024-02, with 988 views; its impact is minor.
- Not found: X (x-radar search over 60 days, 0 posts), TikTok (TikHub search for "스투비플래너", 0 results), and media coverage of the new App (none). The ad library didn't turn anything up, but our ad library only tracks products on our list, so no results doesn't mean it isn't advertising.
6. Why it "looks" like it broke out
- The bar for Korean travel Top Grossing is very low, and the top 10 spots change hands daily; an App with high ticket prices can reach the top 10 with just a few orders (evidence: Couchsurfing at #3, Wanderlog with only 239 ratings bouncing between #4 and #63, and #6 turning over 9 Apps in 10 days).
- This isn't a new product gaining traction; it's a decade-old site moving its users over: the old App was delisted, the new App recognizes old accounts, and the name carries the old brand.
- The product direction is right: it moved from "a tool where you plan the route yourself" to "AI drafts a route plus a quote sheet," usable without logging in, with the first quote free (limited per day), then converting to an annual card or human booking. It's an upgrade path existing users will recognize, but there's no evidence yet of new user acquisition.
7. Differentiation
- Data moat: "100만 여행계획 데이터", meaning data on how other Korean travelers stay in each city for how many nights, where they go next, and how they get between cities. ChatGPT and general planning tools don't have this.
- A quote sheet for Korea-departing travelers: 3 round-trip Incheon flight options, 3 hotels per city, inter-city transport costs, Swiss pass and zone ticket price comparisons, KRW totals, best booking timing per leg, and whether a Eurail pass pays off.
- Monetization: a one-time annual card for the tool, plus premium human booking (from 229k KRW), not a subscription and not traffic monetization.
- These differentiators help keep old users and get them to pay, but they are not why it broke out. The chart signal comes mainly from a low-bar chart plus migrating an existing user base.
8. Takeaways
- Slice a vertical with a "high ticket, low frequency, painful to plan" scenario (multi-city independent travel in Europe), and use accumulated "how others do it" data for recommendations, which is more convincing than general AI planning.
- A three-tier funnel: "free AI first draft → paid tool annual card → human booking"; the web collects payment by bank transfer, bypassing the 30% channel fee.
- When relaunching an old product, put the old brand name in the App name ("OO 최신판") to catch search traffic, and allow old accounts to log in.
9. Still unclear
- Real revenue and downloads: the main payments go through web bank transfer, with IAP making up only a small share; whether 11-06 reached #6 because of a few orders, and whether those were one-time, needs a few more days to see.
- The exact date the old iOS App (id1333435097) was delisted, and how many ratings and users the old App had.
- Whether it ran Naver search ads or Meta ads (not checked, and can't be ruled out).
- The Instagram follower count (the page couldn't be read).
Visibility
Almost nobody knows about it: the new App has no media coverage, 0 posts on X and 0 on TikTok, and revenue isn't public. It's an old name in the Korean Europe-travel circle, but the "new AI version" itself gets little discussion. Copycats: no product found copying it directly; plenty of Korean indie Apps that broadly do "AI trip planning" (투플, 루트비, 트립로그 and others, all launched in the past 2025 to 2026 years).