[Harumanbo Harucheonja] The Return of Seoul City's 'Sonmok Doctor 9988'

Improving Habits of Walking Well and Eating Well
Earn Points and Enhanced Community Features

Seoul's smart healthcare program, 'Wrist Doctor 9988,' has returned with new features. By improving lifestyle habits such as walking well and eating well, participants earn points that can be used like cash. The program also plans to enhance usability by strengthening community functions.

Wrist Doctor 9988, which means "Stay healthy and vigorous (88) until 99 years old," is a "Seoul-type healthcare program" initiated by the Seoul Metropolitan Government to promote healthy lifestyle habits and improve citizens' health.

Selected participants through application can earn up to 100,000 points over six months by practicing healthy habits centered on physical activities such as "walking more than 8,000 steps a day," drinking water, and keeping smartphones away before bedtime. The points earned can be converted into 'Seoul Pay' money and used like cash at hospitals, pharmacies, convenience stores, bakeries, and more. It has gained high popularity among the 'app-tech' crowd who use various walking apps for financial benefits, leading to quick closures of applications each time.

As of the 3rd, the cumulative number of participants reached 430,000, enjoying high popularity. In previous projects, 84.7% of participants reported that it helped improve their lifestyle habits, 45.2% increased their step counts, and among those overweight or above, 12.4% experienced weight loss, showing actual health improvements.

Especially in its fourth year, the program plans to strengthen its operations by launching a dedicated application (app). It will utilize information collected from smartwatches such as sleep, oxygen saturation, and stress levels, and introduce 'community services' like GPS-based event functions and point donation features. Offline walking competitions held outdoors at places like Seoul Grand Park, Jamsugyo Bridge, and Yeouido, which have attracted over 3,000 participants each time and received great responses, will also continue.

However, Seoul initially planned to distribute the new app and start new services on the 18th of last month, but a sudden surge in users caused server instability, resulting in a 'blackout' incident. In response, Seoul completed all work to stabilize access and conducted tests from the 28th of last month by allowing sequential access by age groups. Since the 1st, access has been permitted without age restrictions. From the 4th, additional recruitment for 20,000 people who already own smartwatches or wish to participate using only smartphones will proceed normally.

To commemorate the launch of the dedicated app, various events such as the 'Triple Points Event,' which awards triple points for walking more than 8,000 steps for 9 days, and the 'Walk 24,000 Steps' event, which gives special points for walking 24,000 steps over 5 days, will start from the 8th.