상단영역

본문영역

  • 기자명 Jessie
  • Tech & Bio
  • Published 2021.07.27 09:12

Baby product company YLABS to go beyond e-commerce and target curation commerce

LOMA BOX, a baby product experience review service | Courtesy of YLABS

“Despite the declining birth rate, the babyproduct market in Korea has grown by 10-20% every year, driven by premiumproducts. Significant changes are taking place both in scale and quality.”

According to data from Statistics Korea,the total birth rate in Korea in 2020 was 0.84, a record low for four years ina row since 2017, but the baby care market is soaring despite the currentsituation.

In this regard, Korean companies areshowing active movements in this market, pronounced more in the software sectorthan in the hardware sector.

YLABS is a resident company in DigitalContents Center Growth Support Center. With the launching of the baby productexperience review service LOMA BOX, it is gaining enormous popularity from theMZ generation that has newly emerged as the major consumer group. MZ generationis a group sensitive to trends and familiar to digital consumption. As thisgroup became adults and started families, customized childcare services usingAI have become popular.

AVING News had a non-face-to-face interviewwith YLABS CEO Yoo Jong-woo, and listed to the company’s secret to success ofLOMA BOX.

YLABS selected as Blue100 company in Anyang | Courtesy of YLABS

Q1. Company introduction

YLABS is a venture certified companyspecializing in childcare customized service. It was established in June 2017with the goal to provide a better baby care environment. Our main product LOMABOX is a baby product experience service. It analyzes customer reviews acquiredfrom the app with AI technology to provide customized baby products andchildcare information by age groups.

Since its launch in early 2020, LOMA BOXexceeded one billion won in sales and 460,000 accumulated inflows, establishingitself as a must-have item for mothers in childcare. We are recognized for ourpotential to succeed with the designation as a promising export SME by theMinistry of SMEs and Startups and also as a BLUE 100 company in Anyang-si.

Also, estimating sales of three billion wonthis year, we will build a platform in 2022 so that we can promote the babyproducts and products for moms and dads made by Korean SMEs to Southeast Asia.

Q2. Who are your sales and business target?

Our primary customers are pregnant women tomoms with babies of up to 24 months old. We are going to expand to moms withtoddlers who are five to six years old. We are also going to expand our productline to products for moms and dads, in addition to baby products and services.We are currently giving out LOMA boxes to postpartum care centers, local governments,and large corporations to increase brand awareness.

Q3. How did you come up with LOMA BOX?

The current trend of leaning towardseco-friendly and high-quality products, sample packs, user reviews, and mominfluencers have become new influencers in the childcare market. Currently inthe childcare market, there are many review websites for baby products, but itis not easy to get the information consumers want because there are so manyadvertisements that are disguised as reviews. To solve this problem, we haveopened a review collection website where you can share actual user reviews.

LOMA BOX is our baby product sample boxwith the aim of collecting reviews from real users, and we are going to utilizethe childcare customized service as the basic data. Our review system is verystrict. It is registered only when the users enter the detailed informationabout the child’s growth status and physical details, so advertisements areblocked in advance.

Currently, we have about 11,800 reviewdata, and we are analyzing it by applying it to AI technology. After that,based on the opinions of external parenting experts and the internal dataanalysis team, we created customized childcare service that providesinformation on the best baby products and childcare methods by age and physicalcharacteristics.

Q4. How competitive is LOMA BOX?

We are analyzing data obtained from our ownsample boxes, review websites, and online malls with AI technology. Based onthe analyzed data, we provide customized services according to children's ageand physical characteristics. This is what differentiates us from competitorsthat post advertisement reviews. Also, we concluded a supply contract with ababy product manufacturer at the lowest price, so we are highlyprice-competitive.

Q5. How did you do in the Korean market after launching?

After launching LOMA BOX, we had accumulativesales of one billion won, 460,000 accumulated visitors, and average dailyvisitors of 1,000. For 2021, we are aiming for 30 billion won in sales and100,000 data on baby products.

Also, we have been recognized for thebusiness's growth potential and technological prowess, and this led toattracting seed investment from Korea Venture Investment Corp in 2020. We werealso selected as Anyang Blue100 company to receive 200 million won in fundingfor the next five years. We are discussing crowdfunding (security type) inAugust 2021 and Series A investment by the end of 2021.

Q6. What is the growth potential of the Korean baby product market?

Despite the declining birth rate, the babyproduct market in Korea has grown by 10-20% every year, driven by premiumproducts. Significant changes are taking place both in scale and quality. Asmillennial parents and the golden kids era meet, the demand for ethicaldistribution process and high quality without harmful ingredients isincreasing.

This will lead to actual user reviews andquality verification, which is expected to further increase the influence ofthe online community. Going beyond just information sharing, we are expectingthat the interest in customized services based on AI technology will increasesignificantly.

Q7. Do you have plans to enter the global market?

We are aiming to enter the Southeast Asianbaby product market by 2022..

Recently, we were selected as a “Ho ChiMinh Shared Office Member” by NIPA by exporting our baby product samples twotimes, local market research, and making promotion video in Vietnamese. We werealso designated as a promising export SME from the Ministry of SMEs andStartups in 2021. By developing our own technology and utilizing our babyproduct mall LOMA Mall, we are developing the platform that connects KoreanSME’s baby products with consumers in Southeast Asia, where the birth rate ismuch higher than us.

Q8. Lastly, do you have any future business plans and major issues?

Currently, our second-hand baby producttransaction app, LOMA Mall, review website, and customized childcare serviceare separated. But by 2022, we are going to integrate them all and implementthe first childcare platform LOMA in Korea.

You will be able to find everything aboutchildcare in LOMA, ranging from baby products, childcare community, second-handshop, and customized childcare information in this one-stop service. We arealways going to care about our customers’ childcare needs and step beyond babyproduct e-commerce and provide the childcare curation commerce where customizedsolutions can be given.

YLABS is a resident company of the DigitalContents Center Growth Support Center hosted by the Ministry of Science and ICT(Minister Lim Hye-sook) and operated by National IT Industry Promotion Agency(President Kim Chang-yong) and Next Generation Convergence Contents IndustryAssociation. The company is currently selected for the Advanced Startup Programby the Gyeonggi Contents Agency.

LOMA BOX sample pack | Courtesy of YLABS
LOMA BOX, a baby product experience review service | Courtesy of YLABS


LOMA BOX 1 – Diapers | Courtesy of YLABS


LOMA BOX 2 - Wet tissue | Courtesy of YLABS


LOMA BOX 3 - Masks | Courtesy of YLABS

하단영역