T-Order signs brand partnership with K-pop group Licensee amid dialect controversy

Table-ordering company T-Order has signed a brand partnership with K-pop girl group Licensee, which has recently been caught up in controversy over a remark made by one of its members. While T-Order has been promoting AI-based store-management infrastructure for small-business owners, the deal also signals a clearer strategy to turn the order tablets installed across its nationwide network of stores into a channel for K-pop content and advertising.

T-Order announced Tuesday it has signed a brand partnership with Licensee and will roll out collaborations across advertising, content and promotions in stages. The company said it marks the first time Licensee has partnered with a firm in the IT sector.

Licensee is a five-member multinational girl group that debuted in 2024. The group gained wider recognition after a "Geoje Yaho" meme spread through YouTube, sending its signature track "LOVE ATTACK" up the streaming charts in a reverse-charting surge, and the group was also appointed honorary ambassador for Geoje. Licensee is set to release a remake of Kara's hit "Pretty Girl" on Wednesday.

Licensee has been embroiled in controversy after member Woni used the expression "museopno" — meaning "scary" — during a YouTube video in which she visited the hometown of Japanese member Minami. Some online users argued the phrasing was associated with the far-right online community Ilbe, prompting the controversy to spread. Others pushed back, saying the criticism amounted to an overreaction to a Gyeongsang Province dialect. The National Institute of Korean Language weighed in, explaining that the sentence-final ending "-no" is used in the Gyeongsang regional dialect to express a question.

The dispute spilled into politics. Rebuilding Korea Party leader Cho Kuk wrote on Facebook that "Ilbe mechanically attaches 'no' to standard Korean words," prompting Reform Party leader Lee Jun-seok to dismiss the claim as "outdated Ilbe-baiting." At a People Power Party supreme council meeting, lawmaker Woo Jae-jun criticized attempts by politicians to police what dialect people speak. People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won said, "They're judging your ideology and your dialect. You can't go to Starbucks, you can't freely use your own dialect — South Korea is becoming a surveillance society. Museopno. Scary, isn't it."

T-Order has been working to sharpen its image as an AI company. It has unveiled "T-Order AI," an AI store-management agent for small-business owners, and is pursuing a strategy to upgrade ordering, sales, customer management and marketing functions using store-operation data. The Licensee partnership is an effort to extend the company's reach beyond its business-to-business base of franchise owners and connect directly with end consumers in stores.

T-Order CEO Kwon Seong-taek recently spoke at an event hosted by the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, delivering a lecture on building digital store-management infrastructure and strategy for small-business owners. He said turning offline data into assets could become a key competitive advantage for small businesses in the AI era. He also cited Ministry of SMEs and Startups data from its 2024 small-business survey showing that only 27.2 percent of domestic small-business owners make use of digital tools.

"T-Order is evolving beyond table ordering into an AI company that transforms the entire store-operation experience," a company official said. "Through this partnership with Licensee, we will expand our touchpoints with consumers and establish ourselves as a brand that sets new standards in the industry."