The preview page of Routinery on Apple’s App Store (Screenshot captured from Apple’s App Store)
Born in South Korea but blowing up abroad, the Routinery app is designed to make small changes in users’ daily routines to make a big difference in their lives.
With that mission already partly accomplished less than five years since its launch, the habit-creation app is set to start a new chapter through a revamp later this year.
“Our 2024 goal is to develop new features in the second half of this year to introduce Routinery 2.0,” Seo Inseok, founder and chief executive officer of Routinery, said in an interview with The Korea Economic Daily on Wednesday. The company and product have the same name.
“In the first half, we reviewed and overhauled legacy functions (in the app), and we are readying to develop completely new features or improve functions to add new value.”
Routinery 2.0 is expected to create more diverse environments, such as challenges or meetups among friends, to better motivate Routinery users to form good habits and maintain their daily routines.
It is also exploring the addition of functions that can control a home’s physical environment, like automatically turning up lamps, dimming lights or putting on music for meditation through devices and appliances linked by the Internet of Things.
Routinery staff in a meeting (Courtesy of Routinery)
For this, Routinery has been working with LG Electronics Inc. to enable the app to interact with IoT devices and appliances at home to create a personalized environment tailored to their preferences.
The Korean electronics giant earlier this month acquired Athom B.V., a Netherlands-based home automation company, to facilitate its smart home ecosystem push.
“LG hopes to create a routine that can completely automate (IoT) devices to do house chores,” said Seo. “We want to enrich someone’s day-to-day routines by linking our app with devices requiring some control.”
EFFECTIVE ADHD SUPPORT TOOL
Launched in early 2020, Routinery is touted as one of the most effective productivity-boosting and habit-creation apps. It was picked as Apple’s App Store Editor’s choice in May 2024 and a tool to overcome ADHD by Apple’s App Store.
The app helps its users streamline time management and assists them in combating distractions and procrastination to uphold regular routines, Routinery explained.
Its users can create a morning or night routine to stay productive and plan and manage schedules based on preset durations with timers. This helps the users alleviate anxiety and overcome lethargy by supporting them to enhance focus.
Because of such features, it is recommended as a tool to overcome ADHD although it was initially developed as a habit-tracking app.
(Courtesy of Routinery)
“(Routinery’s) downloads started significantly increasing after it went viral in an ADHD community in the US as an effective aid for ADHD-type brains,” said Seo. “Using a timer to manage time and making a to-do list are ways to help people with ADHD maintain their routines, and Routinery meets those needs well.”
GLOBALLY POPULAR ROUTINE MANAGEMENT APP
Further, the outbreak of COVID-19 also resulted in a rise in downloads of Routinery as more people locked at home wanted to self-discipline through digital planning, said the app developer’s CEO.
Routinery’s downloads topped 5 million globally as of July this year, of which about 85% are from overseas. While Korean users account for less than 20%, US users make up about 30-35% and are responsible for nearly 70% of Routinery’s total revenue, Seo said.
To serve multinational users from more than 200 countries, the app offers 13 languages, including Korean, English, Japanese, Spanish, Indonesian, Portuguese, French, simplified Chinese and more.
Routinery helps its users create routines based on behavioral science, making it different from other habit-tracking peers, said Seo.
“The app creates a clear roadmap to enable users to do tasks in sequence by creating behavior chains between tasks,” he added.
The app also allows users to set different durations for different tasks with a timer, making it more effective in enhancing concentration.
Routinery employees at a workshop (Courtesy of Routinery)
The simple and intuitive interface design and features are another reason for its popularity, said Seo.
“The app is designed to enable users to execute plans, more than just planning,” he added.
EYES $1.5 MILLION REVENUE FOR 2024
It is free to download Routinery but users must subscribe to it to enjoy the benefits of using it.
The company nearly wholly relies on subscription fees for revenue generation because the app barely carries ads.
The company eyes 2 billion won ($1.5 million) in revenue for this year, considering that it earns more than $80,000 monthly on average from subscription fees.
The subscription starts at $0.99 and is available in monthly or annual plans with in-app purchases.
The five-year-old startup has put off its pre-Series A funding round to the second half of this year from the first half partly because it is not currently in urgent need of cash.
It hopes to raise about 2 billion won from the upcoming funding round, Seo said, adding that the company will use the funds to hire more talent in app development and product management. It also plans to spend on paid marketing after spending zero on marketing in the past.
Routinery has so far relied on 100% organic growth in users without any advertisement.
Seo Inseok, founder and CEO of Routinery, holds a smartphone to show Routinery app (Courtesy of Routinery)
The company raised about 200 million won in a seed funding round from Digital Healthcare Partners (DHP) and the Invention Lab in December 2020.
Earlier this year, Routinery was picked as one of 20 Korean startups by Asan Voyager, a program designed to assist Korean startups entering the US by providing acceleration, coaching, community learning and long-term residency support.
“We have been carrying out product optimization since the app’s launch, which has certainly resulted in higher conversion rates, meaning growing revenue,” said Seo. “But other metrics like retention rates have not shown dramatic growth pattern.”
With the 2.0 version, Routinery will try new things to take a new leap although it has not decided on the scope of change in the app for the upgrade, Seo said
“It is important to find the success equation,” Routinery CEO said.
Routinery 2.0 could come with either a big reform or minor changes, said Seo. Regardless of the upcoming system enhancement, the app won’t deviate from its original mission.
“We believe that small changes can make a big difference and Routinery’s goal is to make users feel a little better about their day rather than to change their entire life,” said Seo.
By Sookyung Seo
skseo@hankyung.com
Jennifer Nicholson-Breen edited this article.
