[Edaily Reporter Lee So-Hyun ] An app that delivers messages at the speed of a flying pigeon; a website that shows what South Korea looked like at the time of your birth when you enter your date of birth. These are some of the unique services that have recently attracted attention on social media. A web service that allows users to share sightings of “Bukang-i,” a shark that has been spotted in Busan, has also emerged. App and website development—once considered the exclusive domain of professional developers—is becoming a common hobby thanks to artificial intelligence (AI).

This shift is driven by the growing popularity of “Vibe Coding,” where users simply describe the desired functionality verbally and the AI writes the code for them, thereby lowering the barrier to entry for development. An increasing number of people are trying their hand at creating everything from apps tailored to their personal tastes to tools that solve everyday inconveniences, and even job-hunting portfolios. With social media content showcasing unique websites gaining traction, the services people create themselves are emerging as a new area of interest.

New Sign-ups for Karrot’s Development and Coding Groups Surge 931%

This craze has also spread to neighborhood groups. According to the local community platform Karrot on the 25th, the number of development and coding-related groups increased by 137% year-over-year from September 19 to October 19. The number of events held by these groups rose by 265%, and the number of new members surged by 931%. This means the number of new members joining these groups has increased more than tenfold in just one year.

Group activities are diverse. Members turn ideas sparked in daily life—such as creating games together after work or developing services to boost work efficiency—into tangible results. The scope of activities has broadened, ranging from study groups on using AI development tools to side projects where members collaboratively build web and app services.

Groups created on Karrot are designed to welcome office workers and beginners interested in AI-driven development. Participants can find teammates to work on projects with or share their work to gain development experience. A key feature is that even non-professional developers can meet people with similar interests in their local neighborhoods to learn together and create projects.

Unlike traditional development methods, Vibe Coding has the advantage of not requiring users to manually type out complex programming languages line by line. For example, if you ask the AI, “Please create an app to manage attendees for a neighborhood group and handle membership fee settlements,” it generates the code needed to implement the required screens and features. You can then modify the design or add features by simply conversing with the AI.

While it has become easier to bring ideas to life on your own, the need for collaboration to complete a project has actually grown. In particular, using self-created services as job-hunting portfolios or dividing roles among a group to complete a single project is expanding coding from a simple technical skill into a hobby and self-improvement activity.

Building

Apps Without Knowing How to Code… From Hobby to Livelihood

In fact, services created with Vibe Coding are spreading beyond the realm of hobbies and into the workplace.

Cafe24 Corp.(042000)An analysis of usage records from April to October of this year for “AI Space (SPACE),” an AI service deployment platform, revealed that approximately 450 projects were deployed. Nine out of ten active spaces were in actual use, and more than 80% of these were utilized for business purposes. The range of development areas was diverse, spanning from reservation and quote services to business tools such as inventory and sales management.

Global big tech companies are also supporting app development by the general public. On the 13th, Google announced that it would introduce a feature in select countries allowing users to run personal Android apps created with AI Studio on their own devices via Google Play. This enables individuals to use apps they’ve created themselves without needing a professional developer account.

However, even if AI writes the code, tasks necessary for service operation—such as bug fixes and security checks—remain crucial. While the barrier to entry for development has lowered, human judgment and collaboration are still essential for ensuring high quality and continuous improvement.

A Carrot representative stated, “As the barriers to entry for development have lowered, we’re seeing more active engagement among neighbors with similar interests who want to learn together and work on projects,” adding, “We will continue to steadily enhance our service so that neighbors can meet and interact through a variety of shared interests.”