Jiseongwon, CEO of Beat Corporation
Rising Interest in Robot Cafes Amid Non-Face-to-Face Trends and Multi-Job Craze
Inquiries Increasing
300 Branches Nationwide Within This Year
[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] "By next year, we plan to expand the number of 24-hour unmanned robot cafes ‘b;eat’ stores to around 500, including overseas locations."
Jisungwon, CEO of b;eat Corporation, stated in a written interview with Asia Economy on the 24th, "Our goal is to open up to 300 b;eat stores nationwide by the end of this year, and more than 500 stores including overseas next year."
The robot cafe b;eat is operated by robotic process automation (RPA)-equipped robot baristas that handle everything from ordering, payment, coffee making, to beverage delivery fully automatically.
Since opening its first store at Incheon Airport in 2018, b;eat has been operating 160 stores as of the end of last year. In the early stages of the business, it was only located in special commercial areas such as corporate cafeterias or university stores, undergoing a kind of ‘test period.’
With the spread of non-face-to-face trends due to COVID-19 and the boom in N-jobber startups, interest in robot cafes in store form has rapidly increased, leading to a surge in startup inquiries.
CEO Ji explained, "It is popular among prospective small-scale entrepreneurs because cafes can be opened with a minimum space of 5 to 7 pyeong (approximately 16.5 to 23 square meters). Excluding separate construction costs, startups are possible from about 29 million KRW, and 24-hour operation allows for nighttime sales. The lack of employee management burden is also considered an advantage."
According to b;eat’s own survey based on data from the past six months, 80% of b;eat store owners are so-called ‘N-jobbers.’ Many of them are office workers in their 30s and 40s, while others include retirees over 50, elderly people, and full-time housewives. ‘N-jobber’ is a newly coined term combining ‘N,’ meaning two or more, ‘Job,’ meaning occupation, and the noun suffix ‘-er.’ It refers to people who have multiple jobs besides their main job for livelihood and personal self-realization.
CEO Ji said, "Even if COVID-19 settles into an ‘endemic’ and social distancing is eased, the demand from people who have already experienced the advantages of non-face-to-face business will not disappear. The increasing demand for small-capital startups by N-jobbers and the ongoing labor shortage among small business owners will together drive steady growth in interest and startup demand for robot cafes."
Meanwhile, b;eat has grown into a company collaborating with Amazon Web Services (AWS). The 24-hour unmanned robot cafe operation system has been applied to b;eat, and this case was introduced alongside major domestic companies in the 2021 AWS re:Invent Korean session.
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