O!House Takes On Superapp Status in Home Furnishing in Korea and Beyond
By TAM Hock Chuan and Josh JUNG
1 in 2 South Koreans have downloaded the O!House app to help them design and furnish their homes. This is how many first-time homeowners search for relevant resources to design their spaces. From searching for design inspirations on Pinterest to sourcing for the right furnishing partners, outfitting or remodelling one’s home can be both time-consuming and emotionally draining. O!House, whose creator is Bucketplace, presents the solution to mitigate this experience. Through connecting to relatable user-generated content, Bucketplace aims to empower consumers in making their dream home a reality, especially in consumer societies such as South Korea.
O!House, the No.1 lifestyle super-app and top eCommerce platform offering one-stop home makeover services from online-to-offline renovation, e-commerce, delivery, and remodelling.
Over the last five years, South Korea has seen exponential growth in demand for home furnishing and interior designs, with the home furnishing market value doubling to GBP 8B (estimated USD 9.45B as of Aug 2022). [1] This is driven by a significant increase in the proportion of single households. Coupled with income growth and the global pandemic, consumers are spending more time indoors. This will potentially lead to South Korea's furnishing market value hitting GBP 12B (estimated USD 14.6B as of Aug 2022) by 2023. Substantial upside remains in the South Korean market as the increase in South Koreans’ spending on home furnishing has yet to match their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth. Even as O!House enjoys impressive adoption rates with 10 million active users, 25 million app downloads, and an annualised Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of USD 1.7B, this is just the beginning of their exhilarating growth story.
A personal sojourn leading to interior design
Seungjae Jay Lee, Founder and CEO of Bucketplace
Many have witnessed their rise to become the #1 user community and e-commerce platform for home and lifestyle in South Korea, but one may wonder how Bucketplace was conceived. Founder Seungjae Jay Lee shared that the inspiration came from his previous role when he was assigned the task of transforming the office interior. As online information was sorely lacking, he was frustrated. This prompted him to think about the opportunities in online DIY interior design resources.
On a separate occasion in 2013, Jay visited an acquaintance’s house. Witnessing an aesthetically appealing interior design – a combination of bicycles, beer and wine bottles on display with a feature wall lined with books, Jay was delighted. He had finally entered a true home instead of the many run-of-the-mill and unimaginative homes he had visited or lived in. Jay’s hope was that more people would be able to personalise their homes easily and creatively. He became convinced that there is burgeoning consumer demand for home interior content and set out to create a solution.
Jay observed that people enjoy sharing ideas and creations with each other. Users of the platform did not connect well with airbrushed images from companies but connected magically with fellow users’ organic home images. That prompted him to modify the platform.
Jay believes that people have a dream home where they will decorate their place and continue evolving their spaces. With that in mind, he built Bucketplace and developed the #1 user community and e-commerce platform O!House. The organisation encapsulates the following vision of his, “O!House is reshaping the home furnishing industry with the ultimate goal of improving lives through inspiring homes and personal spaces. O!House leverages content and community to complement its commerce arm and seeks to provide an array of home furnishing and lifestyle solutions and services through a Superapp that will fulfil every need of its community members.”
From Content to Commerce
O!House was created first as a community-building platform where users were able to share inspiring ideas for spaces and homes. User-generated content remains a driving force of O!House where authentic ideas from consumers, rather than content from professional home furnishing companies, are shared.
Content effectively drives engagement and conversion, as it connects users to an attainable idea and provides them with valuable information to make purchasing decisions. A two-way communication channel between the brand and potential shoppers is created as a result. In 2016, the company introduced a content-to-commerce function to their platform, enabling users to click on the exact items shown on the online open houses in order to purchase these items. This unleashed significant commercial growth for the company.
O!House organic home décor
South Korea’s interior design landscape has been gradually dominated by content, commerce, and community integration. During peak periods in 2022, a piece of furniture was sold every seven seconds via O!House. Annual revenue exploded from 7.2B won in 2018 to 117.6B won in 2021. In the latest Series D round, Bucketplace raised USD 177M, breaking fundraising records and receiving acknowledgment as the largest startup funding deal in South Korea in the first half of 2022. Upon that capital injection, Bucketplace is valued at USD 1.6B according to Forbes – making it the newest South Korean unicorn. Vertex Growth identified the strong opportunity in Bucketplace and is among its key investors.
Trust in users
Data has played a crucial role in building momentum, and user-generated content has been integral to success. User-generated content elevates authenticity through “modern day word of mouth” – namely, what users post and interact with on their social media accounts and the corresponding messaging to their social circles. Along with stronger bonds formed within the community, brand loyalty is cultivated and the community flourishes further. According to Forbes [2], 80% of customers admit that user-generated content influences their purchasing decisions. Salesforce research from way back in 2016 also showed that compared to marketing material, user-generated content is five times more likely to convert users to customers. [3]
The distinguishing factor of Bucketplace is irrefutable, its consideration for consumers who rely on and trust in their community to generate ideas. Most e-commerce companies display product and price, which provides little assistance to indecisive customers. On the contrary, a customer can easily open the O!House app and peruse other users' real-life interior design aesthetics for inspiration. They can also communicate with other members facilitating exchanges on design inspirations. O!House helps people develop their own aesthetic tastes through constant friendship within a vibrant online community. What differentiates the O!House community is the virtual open house which every user can attend. From there, users can exhibit the hard-won fruits of their home furnishing labour.
The Superapp for Life’s Memorable Moments
As the #1 user-led community-to-commerce and ultimately a content-to-commerce platform for home and lifestyle in South Korea, Bucketplace now gazes further into the horizon. From home-related services like repairs of appliances and moving services, to providing camping-related content, food recipes and plating solutions for birthday parties, Bucketplace aspires to be the lifestyle app that caters for every significant life event.
Singapore’s top online furniture retailer HipVan is the wholly owned subsidiary of Bucketplace since November 2021
Bucketplace is also actively expanding into other geographical regions through strategic acquisitions. Thus far, it has acquired My Zibda and HipVan. As Danny Tan, CEO of HipVan puts it, “We are excited to be part of the Bucketplace family and to be supporting their expansion plans into Southeast Asia. We look forward to working closely with Bucketplace to build their ever-growing community and helping more customers achieve their inspiring dream homes and lifestyle.” Indeed, the acquisition of HipVan is a strategic move, as HipVan management lends Bucketplace its expertise in e-commerce in Southeast Asia. Bucketplace also secured its own logistics network and offers home remodeling brokerage and moving services on its platform.
Bucketplace is also eyeing Japan as its next major market expansion as it believes that O!House can be adapted to cater to new markets and non-Korean speakers.
Bucketplace’s bright future beckons
Tam Hock Chuan, General Partner of Vertex Growth, remarked, “Bucketplace is our first investment in Korea. What is most fascinating about Bucketplace is its ability to capture the zeitgeist of the times and draw in a large community of users in South Korea. At present, its number of monthly active users is estimated to be 10 million, a sizable 20% of the Korean population, and continues to grow rapidly. Bucketplace’s acquisition of HipVan will allow it to leverage the latter’s seasoned e-commerce knowledge and network to further engage the Southeast Asian market. We look forward to supporting Bucketplace as it scales into new markets in the coming months.”
Since its conception, Bucketplace has been defined by its courage to solve problems, as well as relentless re-evaluation and reinvention. Its founder initially felt intimidated by a Herculean task, then was inspired into action by a peer’s heartfelt interior design. Be it creating relevant content, then monetising that content, Bucketplace’s persistent efforts in adapting to users’ preferences have led to its widespread popularity. The company is also constantly updating user data and tirelessly refining its algorithm in order to ensure its platform makes faster and more relevant recommendations. O!House plans to incorporate machine learning and augmented reality functionality into its platform. This will enable users to realistically visualise how the furniture fits into their apartment.
Regardless of how big Bucketplace expands, it intends to stay true to its original mission. Jay reiterates that he wants to improve people’s lives through problems solving. Bucketplace’s trajectory reflects its appetite to evolve with people’s tastes - that could be its secret to anchoring its virtual empire.