June 6, 2015. A penthouse in Haeundae, Busan. The sea stretched out below the windows, and strangers were becoming a community.
Busanloop began as the name of a small project team — built specifically to run a business networking party in the summer of 2015. The venue was a penthouse in Haeundae with an unobstructed view of the ocean. The occasion was simple: bring interesting people together in one of Korea’s most underrated cities.
The name carries a quiet meaning. A loop is something you keep returning to — and that’s exactly what Busan does to people. Once the city gets under your skin, you find yourself drawn back again and again. The name was born from that feeling: Busan as a pull, a current, a place that makes people want to stay.
”Once Busan gets under your skin, you keep coming back.”
The project was co-founded with a Canadian friend — a collaboration that, in many ways, reflected Busan itself: a port city shaped by outside influences, always in conversation with the world. That internationalism has always been part of the spirit here.
So what is this space for? It’s a place to tell Busan’s story — the city as it was, as it is now, and as it’s becoming. Not through a single lens, but through many: the entrepreneur, the traveler, the local, the newcomer. Past Busan. Present Busan. Future Busan.
If you’ve ever felt the loop yourself — welcome. You’re in the right place.