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"Customers are not looking to find out what kind of quote they can receive. Rather, when they need air conditioner cleaning, they are looking for the right person, and when a leak occurs, they are looking for someone who will fix it. The core we aim for is to drive the behavior of 'when you need a person, think of Sumgo and open the app.'"
Brave Mobile, which operates the lifestyle service platform Sumgo, has grown by providing approximately 1,000 lifestyle services ranging from moving, cleaning, and interior design to tutoring, lessons, design, and IT development. Kim Yeon-jung, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) who joined Sumgo in March this year, spoke thus about the direction for Sumgo's next 10 years.
He explained that his reason for joining was that "Sumgo is already a large platform, but the market it can create in the future is much larger." CMO Kim previously worked at Kakao, Market Designers, and Nol Universe before joining Sumgo. He stated, "Since we have sufficiently accumulated an expert network, customers, data, and transaction experience, we are striving to shift from a 'service for finding experts' to 'the service that comes to mind first when you need a person.'"
"Think of Sumgo when doing it alone feels overwhelming"
CMO Kim is focusing on connecting company awareness with actual usage. As of last year, repeat request customers accounted for 52% of Sumgo's quote request customers. He said, "While metrics confirmed that many people use Sumgo repeatedly, I judged that whether people think of Sumgo when a 'moment when they need a person' arises is still an issue to be resolved," adding, "I viewed the most important task as making people think of Sumgo to immediately call someone when they face something overwhelming to do alone."
Sumgo recently launched a campaign featuring actor Joo Ji-hoon as its model. Behind Sumgo's shift in direction, having not previously engaged in active promotion or branding activities, lies 'securing the usage situation.' The campaign slogan, "When calling someone to your home, think of Sumgo," was designed so that service usage naturally comes to mind when a specific situation occurs.
He noted, "Internal data shows that approximately 70% of all requests occur in situations where people come to the customer's home or space," adding, "In addition to moving, cleaning, interior design, and repairs, face-to-face tutoring and some lessons ultimately take the form of experts visiting the space where the customer is located." He further explained regarding this slogan that it is "an expression that found the greatest common denominator of actual customer behavior, rather than narrowing Sumgo's scope."
Sumgo's area of use does not remain limited to lifestyle services resolved within the home. Recently, usage has expanded in catering for birthdays and 60th birthday celebrations, as well as in the wedding and education sectors. Comparing data from January to August this year with the same period in 2023, Sumgo found that users of wedding-related services increased by 50%. It was explained that usage of services such as wedding helpers, snapshots, and hair and makeup has grown significantly. In the education sector, the scope of use is also expanding from traditional services like tutoring to study habit management, in-home consultations, and physical activities.
Sumgo plans to secure service usage in situations with such time and space constraints. It was explained that as spatio-temporal constraints increase due to factors such as the rise in dual-income households, services are expanding into various fields including childcare, on-site makeup, and elderly care.
CMO Kim's goal is summarized by the metaphor of a 'kimchi refrigerator.' He said, "When the kimchi refrigerator first came out, many people reacted with 'Who would buy such a thing?' but now it has established itself as an essential household appliance for storing not just kimchi, but also fruits and wine," adding, "I hope Sumgo will become a platform covering all aspects of daily life by gradually incorporating various services that may seem unfamiliar now."
Expanding the pool of services and experts together
In addition to expanding users, Sumgo plans to actively work on expanding its expert (Gosu) pool. He stated, "To improve user convenience, it is essential to expand both the number and quality of experts."
CMO Kim used the movie 'The Intern' as an example to explain the direction for expanding the expert pool. He said, "Experience accumulated over a long time in a certain field holds value that cannot be replaced by short-term effort," adding, "We will create a foundation where that expertise is respected and recognized, so that such experience and wisdom do not disappear."
Product changes to diversify customer usage methods are also continuing. The recently introduced 'Instant Booking' is representative. Instant Booking is a method that connects customers one-on-one with professional companies selected by Sumgo. Customers can book services immediately at standardized prices without separate quote comparisons. From the expert's perspective, Instant Booking becomes a new way to acquire customers by allowing them to check jobs booked in advance by customers and selectively accept them, rather than having to look for request forms every time.
He said, "If you want to compare prices and conditions sufficiently, quote comparison is suitable; if you need it urgently right now, Instant Booking is appropriate," adding, "The goal is not for Sumgo to decide how a person should be called, but for customers to choose the method that fits their situation."
He showed a positive reaction to large platforms entering the lifestyle service market one after another. This judgment stems from the belief that as interest in the market grows, the demand itself for services that solve daily problems with expert help can expand. Sumgo is upgrading its services so that customers can complete the process within the platform, not just exploring services but actually solving problems, including quote comparison, Instant Booking, expert verification, and transaction protection.
CMO Kim stated, "If Sumgo's past 10 years were a time to make it possible to find and compare experts online, the next 10 years will be made into a time when customers can call people in a way that fits their situation and complete actual problem solving."
[MoneyToday startup media platform Unicorn Factory]
in FUTURE
