Terms of Use

Last updated: May 21, 2026 · Effective: May 21, 2026

Welcome to Hotpot Club. These Terms of Use (the “Terms”) are a contract between you and Hotpot Club (“Hotpot Club,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) and govern your use of the Hotpot Club mobile application, this website, and any related services we offer (together, the “Service”). Please read them carefully. By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy.

1. Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use Hotpot Club. If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you must be at least 16 (or the age of digital consent in your country). By using the Service, you represent that you meet these age requirements and that you have the legal capacity to enter into this agreement. If you are using the Service on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization to these Terms.

2. Your account

You create an account by verifying a mobile phone number with an SMS one-time passcode. You agree to provide accurate information, keep your account secure, and not share access to it with anyone else. You are responsible for everything that happens through your account. Notify us right away at support@joinhotpot.com if you believe your account has been used without your permission.

3. License to use the Service

Subject to your compliance with these Terms, Hotpot Club grants you a personal, worldwide, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to download, install, and use the Hotpot Club app on a device you own or control, and to access the Service for your personal, non-commercial use. This license does not give you any right to the Hotpot Club name, logo, design, or other intellectual property except as set out here.

4. Your content

4.1 You own what you post

You retain ownership of the dish photos, dish names, notes, comments, rankings, and other content you create or upload through the Service (your “Content”).

4.2 The license you grant us

So we can operate the Service for you and the people you share with, you grant Hotpot Club a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to host, store, reproduce, modify (for example, to resize photos), publish, publicly display, and distribute your Content, solely for the purpose of providing and improving the Service. This license ends when you delete the Content or your account, except that we may retain backup copies for a reasonable period and may retain anonymized or aggregated copies that no longer identify you.

4.3 Your responsibility

You are solely responsible for your Content. You represent that you have all the rights needed to post it and that your Content does not violate anyone else's rights or any applicable law. Hotpot Club does not endorse or vouch for any user Content.

5. Acceptable use

You agree not to use the Service to:

• post content that is illegal, sexually explicit, hateful, harassing, defamatory, or that incites violence;
• impersonate any person or misrepresent your affiliation with anyone;
• collect, scrape, or harvest information about other users without their consent;
• upload viruses, malware, or anything intended to harm the Service or its users;
• attempt to gain unauthorized access to accounts, servers, or networks;
• interfere with the proper functioning of the Service, including by sending spam or attempting to overwhelm it;
• use the Service to develop or train a competing product, including by automated means;
• reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code of the Service, except where applicable law forbids that restriction;
• violate any other person's privacy, intellectual property, or other legal rights;
• use the Service for any commercial purpose without our prior written agreement.

6. Tagging other people

Hotpot Club lets you tag other users as having cooked with you or for whom you cooked. Tagging is intended for the people who were actually at the table. Anyone you tag is notified and can remove the tag at any time. Repeatedly tagging people who have removed your tag, or tagging in a way that harasses or misrepresents them, is a violation of these Terms and may lead to account suspension.

7. Visibility and privacy

The Service offers controls so you can decide who sees your Content — including per-post visibility (public, followers, private) and an account-level private mode. These controls are described in the app and in our Privacy Policy. We do our best to enforce the settings you choose, but no system is perfect; do not post anything you would not be comfortable having seen by someone outside your intended audience.

8. Reporting and moderation

If you see content that violates these Terms — including harassment, impersonation, or content that infringes your rights — please report it to report@joinhotpot.com. We may, but are not required to, remove content, suspend accounts, or take other action in response. We may also take action on our own initiative when we believe these Terms have been violated.

9. Intellectual property and DMCA

Hotpot Club and our licensors own all rights in the Service, including the software, design, brand, and any associated materials, except for your Content. If you believe content on the Service infringes your copyright, send a notice that complies with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to dmca@joinhotpot.com. We will respond as required by law and may remove the contested content while a dispute is being resolved.

10. Suspension and termination

You can stop using the Service at any time and can delete your account from Profile → Settings → Delete Account. We may suspend or terminate your access to the Service, with or without notice, if we believe you have violated these Terms, if your activity creates risk or legal exposure for us, or if we discontinue the Service. Sections of these Terms that by their nature should survive termination (including ownership of Content, disclaimers, limitations of liability, and dispute resolution) will continue to apply after termination.

11. App-store specific terms

If you obtained the app from the Apple App Store, you also agree to Apple's Licensed Application End User License Agreement. These Terms are an agreement between you and Hotpot Club only — not Apple — and Apple is not responsible for the Service or its content. Apple is a third-party beneficiary of these Terms and is entitled to enforce them against you. The same general principle applies for the Google Play Store and any other distribution platform: those platforms are not parties to these Terms and their own rules also apply to your use of the app.

12. Disclaimers

The Service is provided “as is” and “as available.” To the maximum extent permitted by law, Hotpot Club disclaims all warranties, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any warranty that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure. Hotpot Club does not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or quality of any user Content. Cooking and food preparation involve real-world risks (heat, allergens, sharp tools); you are responsible for the food you prepare and serve.

13. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Hotpot Club and its officers, directors, employees, and agents will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, or other intangible losses, arising out of or in connection with your use of the Service. Hotpot Club's total liability for any claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service is limited to the greater of one hundred U.S. dollars (US$100) or the amount you have paid to us in the twelve months before the claim arose. Some jurisdictions do not allow these limits, in which case they apply to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law.

14. Indemnification

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Hotpot Club and its affiliates from and against any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or related to your Content, your use of the Service, or your violation of these Terms.

15. Governing law and dispute resolution

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. Except where prohibited by law, any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in San Francisco County, California, and you consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts. If you are a consumer in the European Union or another jurisdiction whose laws grant you the right to bring proceedings in your local courts, nothing in this section overrides that right.

16. Changes to these Terms

We may revise these Terms from time to time. If we make material changes, we will give you reasonable advance notice — for example, by displaying a notice in the app or updating the “Last updated” date at the top of this page. Your continued use of the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the revised Terms. If you do not agree to the revised Terms, stop using the Service and delete your account.

17. Miscellaneous

These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between you and Hotpot Club concerning the Service. If any provision is held unenforceable, the rest of the Terms will remain in effect. Our failure to enforce any right is not a waiver. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent; we may assign them in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, or by operation of law.

18. Contact

Questions about these Terms? Write to support@joinhotpot.com.