Korean Contents Companies Going Global - Kitten Planet
Regardless of what type of a business it is, even a business with excellent technical skills cannot succeed if it does not know its customers. Products and services that understand and help customers will be bound to captivate their hearts. ‘Kitten Planet’ is the one that practices such business philosophy.
‘A company that provides IT services that understand and transform children is the motto of Kitten Planet, which makes IoT (Internet of Things) products, mobile applications, and contents for children. “Just like a kitten, which accomplishes many things on its own, at an age younger than any other animals, so I have named our company ‘Kitten Planet’ with a feeling of wanting children to grow as an independent human being.”, said CEO Choi Jongho regarding why the company’s name is called ‘Kitten Planet’.
With many IT technologies being applied to education recently, baby products are also being bundled with IT service technologies in order to increase the effects of education and levels of interest. Kitten Planet is a company that was established as part of the ‘kids smart toothbrush, Chikapong’ project, which was incubated for about a year in 2016, through the C-Lab system of Samsung Electronics. The reason behind why it was able to confidently leave Samsung Electronics and challenge the baby product markets was its confidence based on IT technologies and creative ideas.
Kitten Planet’s major business is baby and infant products and services. Its first products is the ‘Brush Monster’, which is a smart education application for brushing teeth and allows one to have enjoyable time brushing teeth with his or her children, and also the ‘Smart Toothbrush’. Kitten Planet is planning to sell ‘Smart Toothbrush’ from December, and its future goal is not only to work on a cartridge business that sells replaceable brush heads, but also to develop service platforms for babies.
The ‘Brush Monster’ application is composed of contents that help kids to learn how to brush teeth effectively through an AR (Augmented Reality) tooth brushing guide, even without the Smart Toothbrush. Brushing teeth is mostly done while looking at a mirror, but this is difficult for children since the sink in a restroom is usually too high for them, with the mirror placed even higher. Also because they have lower handling abilities and spatial perception, it is difficult for them to get into the nooks and corners of their teeth and it is not fun for them to brush their teeth. Brush Monster is an AR tooth brushing guide which helps kids to brush their teeth while looking at their faces. Overall it elevates and adds a level of fun as it is created like a game with a story.
“We thought that places where kids can see toys were starting to disappear, as seen with the recent bankruptcy of Toys “R” Us. However, because many play experiences have been moved online, such as YouTube, more service platforms for infants and babies are needed. Many baby products and services that are currently out in the markets focus on making products small and cute. Kitten Planet plans its services by looking for elements that are absolutely needed in order to grow kids and thus the need to design from basics. Brush Monster is an application that is made that way.”, said CEO Choi Jongho while emphasizing how Kitten Planet is set apart from others.
Because users and buyers of baby products are different, they need to satisfy requests from parents and children at the same time. While it may be good for kids if one focuses on the fun elements of the applications, it is not a good choice from the perspective of a parent who needs to put his or her baby to sleep after brushing their teeth. This is why Kitten Planet has to get various tests many times with kids and mom when it makes products. The core of Kitten Planet’s education is ‘learn by doing’ and this means that direct experiences are true learning. This is why the thorough sense of duty and professionalism at Kitten Planet, which does not want to miss out even on minor details of customers’ requirements, stands out.
“When Kitten Planet was established last April, we set up the goal of making one small success every 3 months. We made a prototype of the Brush Monster asked for feedback from users during the first 3 months (April, May, and June), we then subsequently carried out tests on users for the next 3 months (July, August, and September), and finally released the application on the 27th of September. We received 444% in November with Wadies Funding. Although we were worried that making free applications available would impact our sales, we believe that it is more important to make products that increase the level of satisfaction for our users, by releasing better applications in the future, and after receiving feedback from them. After we begin to sell our products in December, we are also going to work on developing follow-up products and exporting our products.” said CEO Choi.
Even though the birth rate is dropping, the size of South Korea’s baby product markets had grown steadily from $1.06 billion (1.2 trillion KRW) in 2009 to about $2.12 billion (2.4 trillion KRW) in 2016. A business must focus on what children and moms want if it wants to succeed in the baby product markets. Moves made by Kitten Planet, which has always put customers at the center, are very unique from others. Kitten Planet will make kids and moms all over the world happy, will be fulfilled one day.
Posted byHyangseon Lee in ETNEWS | hyangseon.lee@etnews.com