Bit Corporation (CEO Ji Seong-won), Danal’s food tech company, officially opened ‘Pangyo Techno Branch’, the first b;eat box store, in Pangyo Techno Valley in April and began commercializing its autonomous retail platform in earnest. He said.
Beatbox Pangyo Techno Branch is a small store measuring 53㎡ (approximately 16 pyeong) and is located in the center of Pangyo Techno Valley, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, known as Korea’s Silicon Valley and IT hub. This commercial district, where major domestic IT companies are concentrated, has a lot of demand from young office workers who are familiar with digital retail, and is evaluated as the optimal test bed to achieve the goal of opening 100 Beatbox stores within the year.
We met Ji Seong-won, CEO of Bit Corporation, at ‘Pangyo Techno Branch’, the first store of b;eat box, and heard an explanation about the unmanned robot cafe Beat Box.
Q1. About Us
CEO Ji Seong-won: Bit Corporation, an affiliate of Danal Group, is a company that adds value by combining an unmanned platform in the F&B market. In the past, when he was CEO of Dalkom Coffee, he formed an app ordering system task force (TF) team to create a platform for offline stores. The idea of creating a platform for offline stores led to the current 3rd generation model, ‘Beat 3X’.
Q2. The opportunity to start a business
CEO Ji Seong-won: We confirmed that robots can show delicate movements through global exhibitions such as MWC and CES and decided that robots could replace the role of baristas. In addition, we thought that customer time could be shortened if customers could order in advance through an app and simply pick it up at the store, so we introduced an ordering app and were able to design a fully automated, unmanned cafe by combining these elements.
Q3. Features of beat box (b;eat box)
CEO Ji Seong-won: After introducing 1-2 households to a company or a specific apartment, I saw that customers had no difficulty using it, so I decided to take on the challenge of the BtoC market. While the existing models are items that unmanned and automated the counter and work space of a cafe, the 3rd generation Beat 3X is the ‘space’ itself called a cafe.
Beatbox manages and controls stores stably without any permanent manpower. Artificial intelligence (AI) predicts sales demand on its own through a deep learning process, identifies inventory in the store, and automatically orders necessary items. LiDAR technology, which acts as the eyes of autonomous vehicles, was applied for the first time in the robot cafe industry. We collect various operational and marketing data generated from stores and provide optimized store operation solutions for each commercial district. Bit Corporation plans to advance its O4O (Online for Offline) business by analyzing various data collected online to gain marketing insights and applying them to actual offline store operations.
Q4. How to use beat box (b;eat box)
CEO Ji Seong-won: There are two ways to use it: order in advance and receive it, or order on site. If you order in advance through a dedicated app, you can find out the pick-up number and the time it takes to prepare the drink. Afterwards, you can visit the store and pick up your drink. This is a safer method in the Corona era and saves customers’ time as they spend less time in the store. Another method is to order through a kiosk located in the store, and a pickup number is provided, just like in the dedicated app. Through this, you can receive the drink you ordered.
Q5. About the design of Beat 3X
CEO Ji Seong-won: The design of the first generation is somewhat clunky compared to the current one. It initially targeted the BtoB market and was the result of focusing on functional elements. With the idea that some people may feel uncomfortable with the cold design, we introduced a face on the screen starting from the 2nd generation, and the current 3rd generation model has 24 rich facial expressions to not only greet you but also communicate with customers who briefly visit to receive drinks. It has evolved into a friendly model.
Q6. current performance
CEO Ji Seong-won: Currently, the 1st and 2nd generations have surpassed the 100th store (as of May 14), and the 3rd generation alone has 30 units sold and 15 units in operation. Two stores are opening every week, and the goal is to secure 100 stores in 2021 alone. More customers will be able to find robot cafes, which were previously only found in special commercial areas, in more accessible places such as offices and residences.
Q7. The reason why Beat 3X opened its first store in Pangyo
CEO Ji Seong-won: Pangyo Techno Valley is a place where IT infrastructure is concentrated. It is a place where innovative and young companies gather, and it is expected that employees working here will have little resistance to the unfamiliar unmanned robot cafe. In addition, we thought it would be very popular in the office commercial district due to its ability to save customers’ time, so it was judged to be the optimal location.
Q8. Impact of COVID-19 pandemic
CEO Ji Seong-won: We had been planning an unmanned robot cafe even before COVID-19 in 2016. In fact, the 1st and 2nd generation models were in operation even before COVID-19. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ‘untact’ became an important keyword, allowing the business to develop faster. Since this phenomenon is equally evident in the global market, we are accelerating our overseas expansion.
Meanwhile, in recognition of its innovative business model and future growth value based on robot cafes, Bit Corporation completed attracting Series A investments worth 10 billion won from four institutions in the first quarter. Bit Corporation has established itself as a leading company in the industry both in name and reality by commercializing the world’s first robot cafe, with the number of stores exceeding 100.
Ji Seong-won, the CEO of Bit Corporation, was born in Seoul in 1979 and majored in computer engineering at Kyunghee University. A former engineer, he joined the Danal Entertainment Business Department in 2006 and was appointed CEO of Dalkom (now Danal F&B) in 2016 in recognition of his successful performance in expanding domestic and overseas franchise business from the launch of Dalkom Coffee. CEO Ji Seong-won, who first planned the robot cafe project during the Dalkom era, has been in charge of the development and business management of Robot Cafe Beat since 2017, when the related task force (TF) was launched. In October last year, he was appointed as CEO of Bit Corporation, a spin-off from Dalkom, and successfully completed major projects such as ‘opening the 100th robot cafe’ and ‘attracting 10 billion won in Series A investment’.
Source: Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom
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