ⓒ Cookplay

In recent weeks, we’ve introduced companies that generated some of the biggest buzz at this year’s Korea Electronics Show. The last such company we’re going to talk about today is Cookplay, a developer of an innovative recipe sharing platform service. Let’s hear from Shin Min-seon(신민선), the head of the company.

We began to promote our products at the Korea Electronics Show, which is the nation’s biggest information technology show. It was a great opportunity for us, as we met a lot of people there to exchange thoughts about the future of the industry. Through events like this, I’m sure we can explore more opportunities to work with other firms. Outside the country, we will participate in the Consumer Electronics Show in the U.S. next year. The international event will surely enable us to promote our products internationally and tap into overseas markets.

Cookplay was set up on October 21, 2016, inside the Daedeok(대덕) Research Complex, with N4U Tech Holding participating in equity investment. N4U Tech Holding is a corporation jointly created by industrial-educational cooperation groups from four local universities. Our business item is a recipe sharing service linked with a mobile application and a Bluetooth electronic scale.

Cookplay provides a recipe platform service designed to help people cook food in an easy and interesting way. Mr. Shin talks about why he came up with this particular idea.

ⓒ Cookplay

In line with the changing times, recipe books have been replaced by multimedia and mobile apps. But the concept is all the same. For beginners and even professionals, it isn’t actually very easy to cook food as instructed in recipes.

As a licensed cook in the military, I remember many times when trainees’ food all tasted different even though they cooked food with the same recipe. I realized it was difficult to produce the desired flavor just by following recipes. I thought it would be nice if even those who were not good at cooking could make food easily and consistently. I leveraged this idea into my business.

As an army cook, Shin found that food might be produced with different flavors, even with the same recipe, because the amount of ingredients used by people might vary. This experience inspired him to develop some convenient service to help people, including novices, cook food easily.

In fact, it is difficult for beginners to gauge the exact amount of ingredients even if they see recipes offered by cookbooks, videos or TV programs. The units of measurement can be different in each recipe—some use spoons, whether big or small, while others use grams. Moreover, preparation time can differ depending on individuals.

With these factors in mind, Shin developed technology that records cooking methods, ingredient preparations, measurement, cooking process as well as cooking time in recipes. The result was a recipe sharing service that works with an IoT or Internet of Things electronic scale.

I thought it would be convenient if people can use an electronic scale connected with a mobile app linked with a certain recipe in order to get portions right.

Let’s take sujebi(수제비) as an example. First, you prepare a certain amount of flour for this traditional Korean soup with hand-torn noodles. The service will automatically calculate the exact amount of water needed for the flour you prepared. It sounds pretty easy, doesn’t it?

In general, recipes show all the ingredients first and explain how to make food with those ingredients. So, you have to read the explanations about the ingredients and methods repeatedly in the entire cooking process. Cookplay, on the other hand, only shows ingredients and methods needed for each cooking stage. Even beginners can follow this recipe easily.

Also, all the ingredients can be precisely measured by the electronic scale so even inexperienced users can cook food without worrying about making mistakes.

Cookplay’s service is quite simple. First, you connect an electronic Bluetooth scale to your mobile phone. The scale will then interface with a mobile app. When you enter a dish you want to cook on the app, a recipe shows up on screen. As you add ingredients to the scale, the app automatically changes the recipe, modifying the ingredients or cooking time, to match perfectly with the ingredients you already have.

Following the steps as instructed, even beginners can cook food like a professional. Moreover, people can post their own unique recipes and share with others. Indeed, this promising platform has received widespread recognition.

We’ve been making efforts to turn this idea into a successful business. We have been selected for a six-month platform support program offered by the Ministry of Science and ICT. We have also been chosen as one of the start-ups to participate in the incubation center at the Center for Creative Economy and Innovation in Seoul. In addition, we’ve joined a startup support program provided by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. The participation enabled us to bring our product to market. In 2017, we were allowed to enter the National IT Industry Promotion Agency’s Innovation Venture Center at Nurikkum(누리꿈) Square in Sangam-dong, western Seoul. In the case of Bluetooth electronic scales, we launched the business through Wadiz, a rewards-based crowd-funding web platform in Korea.

Our goal is to enable a truly international cooking experience. Americans cook kimchi-inspired recipes created by Koreans, and Koreans follow recipes engineered by French cooks. We hope to breathe new life into the global food tech market by creating new trends and culture in this space.

Cookplay clearly stands out among the competition, as it provides a fun, easy experience to users. To make a stylish scale fit a kitchen environment, Cookplay revised the scale several times to get it just right.  The company was able to secure support from government institutions and successfully raised capital from crowd-funding, reaching more than 200 percent of its goal in the first 90 minutes of the campaign. The company is now looking at further growth opportunities.

ⓒ Cookplay

While we have deep expertise in some areas, there are things we can’t do alone. That’s why we make great efforts to work with other firms in cooperation. For instance, we will develop chicken breast recipes with a company named “Food Tree.” We also plan to work with another firm, “Doctor Diary,” a developer of technology solutions for those with diabetes. Together, we’ll create recipes featuring ingredients that suit their dietary needs. Our long-term plans include the development of pet food recipes and the production of electronic scales for products requiring a proper and accurate mixture of ingredients, such as coffee and handmade cosmetics.

Measurement and mixture of ingredients are highly important in coffee, baking and pet food industries. The medical and healthcare industries may need devices to show calorie intake and nutritional contents of food in real time. Cookplay could expand its business into those areas.

For now, the company is expanding its service into various fields step by step, including voice-recognition IoT kitchen appliances, multilingual support and photo recognition. No doubt, it will create a new culture in the food tech industry that combines food with ICT technology.