[Life Act 3 Companies] "Third Senior Business... Met 1,300 Middle-aged People"

Gong Taeyoung, CEO of Weayers

"I have interviewed 1,300 retired middle-aged and older adults so far. The common hardship they experience is based on 'relationship reduction.' Even those who were lifelong housewives feel empty when their children leave home. The era when middle-aged people gather for hiking, billiards, and drinking is passing. Many want fresh and trend-leading leisure activities. I want to gather such people and provide new leisure lifestyles."

Asia Economy interviewed Gong Taeyoung (38), CEO of Weayers, on the 18th of last month. He has been running a business targeting seniors since 2016. While he was an ordinary office worker, experiencing marriage and childbirth made him empathize with the concerns of his parents' generation, and from then on, he decided to start a business for seniors. His first business was franchise branding for middle-aged and older adults. It was a concept of creating a brand together for retired middle-aged people who approached franchise business without much understanding of its nature. The second was a job matching platform. It was a specialized matching business connecting middle-aged skilled technicians with startups. Gong, who previously worked in finance at a construction machinery company, started this business in the Gyeongsangnam-do region after witnessing the decline of shipbuilding and manufacturing industries and the successive retirement of technicians working on-site. It was an attempt to digitize the job-seeking methods of middle-aged people, which mostly relied on personal recommendations, employment agencies, and private classifieds.

After operating the job matching platform for over seven years, Gong started a new business model last year. The target remains seniors. He said, "Until now, I operated a business connecting seniors to their second careers, but this time, I want to help them find things to enjoy." Gong's new startup, Weayers, provides a community service where people who are about to retire or have experienced retirement can anonymously share stories and hardships.

Gong Taeyoung (38), CEO of Weayers. He has focused on businesses targeting seniors since his early 30s. Photo by Weayers

- Please introduce Weayers.

▲ It is an online community where pre- and post-retirement generations can communicate comfortably in various fields such as assets, hobbies, and leisure activities based on common interests. The common problem seniors I met over the past seven years struggled with was the rapid reduction of relationships due to changes in social status. Many seniors I interviewed said, "Even if I don't have to go to work, I want to get up in the morning, leave the house, and meet people." This is a natural problem caused by losing connections with social members. Weayers started as an anonymous community for middle-aged and older adults and aims to develop into a service supporting the overall life of pre- and post-retirement generations, including life planning, leisure activities, and psychological care.

- Why did you think an anonymous community was necessary?

▲ Middle-aged and older adults said they find it hard to open up their true feelings to those around them. They worry about burdening their families and feel competitive with close friends, making it difficult to show their struggles due to pride. Of course, there are many similar online groups like retirement cafes on portal sites. However, in those spaces, there are people who post and others who only read. Many people just 'lurk' without writing posts. Weayers wants to create a space with active two-way communication. So, we added game elements. Active users who become 'communication kings' receive periodic gifts. Thanks to this, nearly 70,000 posts have been made in seven months.

Weayers Platform.

- You started online, but now you also operate offline meetings?

▲ At first, I only thought of a model like 'Blind' (an anonymous community app for office workers) for middle-aged people. Then I thought it would be good to gather these people offline anonymously. I hypothesized that providing networking and leisure activities with anonymity would be well received by participants. We open offline communities under topics desired by participants and meet. Since the end of last year, we have been operating based on the Gyeongnam region in collaboration with local small business owners and influencers. The service fees paid by users when reserving meetings and the commissions paid by small business owners when registering meetings are recorded as our company's revenue.

Recently, we invited professional golfer Choi Dae-ryong, who has about 180,000 YouTube subscribers, to hold a golf lecture and memorabilia event for Weayers members. It was very popular among people in their 50s and 60s who enjoy golf, and the recruitment of about 50 people quickly filled up. It was well received because it is difficult to meet most influencers outside the metropolitan area.

Kong Taeyoung, CEO of Weayers. Photo by Weayers

- What kinds of meetings are mainly created through the platform?

▲ There are various meetings such as smartphone photography study groups, tea ceremony groups, and terrarium groups. We adjust the topics and nature to maintain the soundness of the meetings. Currently, many meetings are held in the form of one-day classes where small business owners open meetings and accept participants through the Weayers application. Thanks to this, some small business owners said they could recognize middle-aged and older adults as target customers.

- What kind of meetings are users most interested in?

▲ Since the age group mostly wants to spend their later years stably, meetings related to financial management and investment are very popular. Recently, we held an online seminar with BNK Gyeongnam Bank on how to create fixed income using pension systems and how retired regional subscribers can utilize health insurance. Nearly 1,500 people attended the seminar. Before that, we held three offline meetings on similar topics in Gyeongnam, and many people from other regions wanted to participate, so we conducted it via YouTube Live. We plan to continue holding such educational online meetings. Currently, Weayers collaborates with BNK Gyeongnam Bank to provide free one-on-one financial and asset consultations for retirees and those who have retired.

- What are your future goals?

▲ First, we aim for 1.5 billion KRW in sales and 200,000 members by next year. If we have built a communication-centered community over the past year, now we are diversifying meetings online and offline to expand sales and traffic. We plan to expand the business model based on personal data matching solutions and grow into a life care market specialized for active middle-aged and older adults. We are also considering diversifying revenue structures by selling collaborative products such as healthcare. Due to the nature of community business, it is difficult to generate profits quickly from the start. We will focus on securing initial investment in the second half of this year while steadily expanding the customer base.