Baedal Minjok to upgrade to 'super-app'

The new design of Baedal Minjok's super-app's home page / Courtesy of Woowa Brothers

By Kim Jae-heun

Woowa Brothers, operator of the country's top food delivery player Baedal Minjok (Baemin), has hinted the mobile application for Baemin will undergo a drastic design change.

The very recent design of the food delivery service's platform looks more like a “super-app,” which shows all the services provided by Baemin in one screen, enabling customers to connect to them without installing a separate mobile application.

Woowa Brothers introduced the new mobile application design to the online community of restaurant owners on May 7 and explained its functions. The company said its super-app design will be implemented on June 8.

The current platform only lists types of food on the screen such as Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Italian. Recently, Baemin added its live shopping and fulfillment service B Mart to the list.

“We have reorganized the screen design with a focus on improving accessibility and convenience of the app so that customers can connect to the services comfortably,” a Woowa Brothers official said. “The new design of the application collects all the useful content and the benefits of the services in one screen. At the same time, we want to communicate with customers and members of the platform to make society a better place.”

Naver and Kakao are other firms that are well-known for operating super-apps.

Naver's app gathers all kinds of services from providing information on real estate to shopping for clothing and playing music and films. Kakao also provides banking services and daily news as well as web dramas while inviting 93 percent of smartphone users here to send and receive instant messages through its Kakao Talk platform every day.

By introducing a super-app for its collective services, a platform operator shows it wants to seek continuous growth. People nowadays feel tired from downloading too many mobile phone applications for different services, and putting them all together in one super-app maximizes convenience and satisfaction.

Choi Bo-reum, a professor at the University of Seoul, revealed in her 2017 study that 191 participants in their 20s and 30s said they were very much satisfied with super-apps' functions in six categories including variety, accessibility, interactivity and perceptual benefit.

“Baedal Minjok started as a food delivery service only and now it is working hard to secure more customers by introducing its new super-app for their convenience. However, it remains unknown whether Baemin will hold its top position in the market, with several newcomers hot on its heels,” an industry source said.