Apps help New Year’s resolutions

Products tend to fly off the shelves around the start of a new year. Many of them are “determination-goods,” those that help motivate people to reach their New Year’s goals. There are determination-goods for all sorts of resolutions, including those related to finance, fitness and foreign languages. According to e-commerce companies, sales of such products more than triple around the end and the beginning of a year. This year, IT start-ups have put out apps to help users achieve their goals.

Sound Gym app provides an audio fitness training service. [SOUND GYM]

New Year’s resolutions

The Challengers app helps make little goals into lifelong habits.

Challengers promotes good behavior with financial incentives. Users of the app bet money, which ranges from 10,000 won ($9) to 200,000 won, to challenge themselves to commit to their own goals. They get their money back if they achieve more than 85 percent of what they set out to do. If they accomplish less, the return is lower. The achievement rate is tracked automatically.

Challengers was created by White Cube, a start-up formed in 2018. Currently more than 300 projects are registered on the platform, including “Getting up at 6 a.m.,” “Writing a diary” and “Going to the gym.” Users can suggest new challenges or take part in challenges of other users. Within a year, the Challengers app had 200,000 users on its platform.

Fitness

Exercise is better together than alone.

Butfit Seoul holds group exercise sessions that run for five weeks. Its goal is to make exercise enjoyable for weak-willed individuals. Two classes are held every week, and a full session of five weeks costs between 200,000 won and 300,000 won. It may seem expensive, but around 60 percent of users register again. According to the users, the program is “quite sustainable.”

For those who do not have the time and the luxury to register for a gym membership, the audio fitness app Sound Gym can be an alternative. Sound Gym provides audio training services from registered fitness specialists, as well as music to play in the background while training at home. The app recommends personalized audio training services according to the user’s training level. It also tracks the total workout count and workout time.

Education

New Neek is a media start-up that provides newsletter services. Under the slogan “We are not ignorant of the world, we just don’t have time,” it already has 110,000 subscribers on its emailing list.

New Neek is a news curating service especially know for its friendly and conversational tone.

Newsletters are sent three times every week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and the topics can range from politics to industry news and diplomacy.

It also manages an independent page that provides additional information on complicated issues that may require more background.

Money management

Bank Salad and the Uppity newsletter will help you manage your assets in the new year.

Asset management can be an overwhelming word. Bank Salad, a money management app with 5 million users, may be able to help.

It compiles a person’s financial information into one place, takes care of the books, and analyses spending habits based on the user’s purchase history. It’s helpful for those who have never tried to manage their assets or make financial investments, and it helps track spending. It even gives warnings, like a parent, to spend less.

Newsletter service “Uppity” is for those interested in making investments. It is a “money letter” service sent every morning from Monday to Friday. It sends financial information useful to those who have just started their job. The topic is different every day, from money concerns to industry news, such as the recent acquisition of Woowa Brothers, a local food delivery company. It adds comments from its editors to stay true to its identity of a newsletter.

BY JUNG WON-YEOB [kang.jaeeun@joongang.co.kr]