Is your old high school journal sitting in a bookshelf collecting dust, never to be written in again? Although some people might like the novelty of handwriting their journal, WePlanet is looking to bring the classic format into the 21st century with its new STEP Journal service, adapted for todays smartphone ridden world. STEP allows individuals to easily and swiftly record their daily lives by using an intuitive icon-based interface and by collecting user-generated content from SNS services.
Going global
WePlanet recently accompanied beSUCCESS to Singapore as one of ten Korean startups that won the chance through the ‘K-APP Global Hub Program’ to go to Singapore for an intensive week of seminars, business matching and networking. Whilst other K-APP participants have largely focused their efforts on tapping the SE Asian market, WePlanet don’t see the it as their main one. “SE Asia is not the primary market for us, but we wanted to leverage the market as a test bed. We mainly wanted to tap into the investment opportunity in Singapore” Daniel Cho, CEO of WePlanet said. He went on and said: “We are looking to make a first step to get series A funding in the future and we had some good initial interactions with local VCs during the trip. There seems to be a good chance to find a funding partner since we have a product that is targeting a global audience”.
More About STEP
WePlanet aggregates the personal data you have scattered across various social media platforms in a private, visually attractive mobile app. The results are easily curated data sets that can be quickly analyzed to assess life patterns. With STEP users no longer need to struggle to figure out what to write, instead they can record their life journal moments by clicking on the icons that are recommended according to the users' locations, photos, activities, etc. The app also features a personalized Dashboard and info-graphics about the users life. Although WePlanet has not yet monetized their STEP service, they are convinced that their increasing user database will drive interest from large corporations who would like to analyze and act upon for marketing. In the short term STEP will continue to refine its service offering to users and will aggressively push user acquisition globally through partnerships and investment. In the longer term the team will focus on a sound revenue model that leverages the high value of the data collected. Seed has been bootstrapped so far, with additional support from its time as a member of Seoul-based accelerator SparkLabs’ first cohort. To download the app for iOS (Android service coming soon) click here.
More about this article series
The KAPP article series will cover each of the 20 startups that took part in the KAPP Global Hub Program, which took Korean startups to two global startuphubs, and is followed with a series of targeted workshops to ensure that the relationships and experience gained during the overseas trips was fully leveraged. 10 startups went to Singapore to discover the South East Asian markets, build partner relationships and gain investment for global growth. The other 10 companies went to Israel to engage with, and learn from, experts in one of the World’s most prolific high-tech centres.
