– A secretary who kindly helps with complicated digital life, from travel to shopping that you asked your child to do.
-Growing into a digital partner that will be with you for life, from travel to finance to healthcare
It is a convenient world where everything is digitalized. However, in this convenient digitalized world, there are people who are excluded. They are seniors. For the younger generation, things like searching for maps, online shopping, and booking airline tickets are still high walls for seniors.
According to the '2024 Digital Information Gap Survey' (March 2025) by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Institute for Intelligent Information Society, the digital information level of the elderly (the term 'elderly' is used in the survey) is only 71.4% of that of the general population. Among them, those in their 60s account for 79.5%, and those in their 70s and older account for 51.5%, with the gap widening with age. There is no significant difference in accessibility, such as possession of information devices and internet access, but there is a significant difference in the capacity and usability of using digital devices. In particular, the elderly were found to have the largest digital gap compared to other vulnerable groups, such as the disabled, low-income earners, farmers and fishermen, North Korean defectors, and marriage immigrants.
There is a startup that has stepped forward to help seniors utilize digital technology. Rather than having the grand goal of eliminating the digital divide, it is a company that started with the intention of helping seniors live a digital life. It is Rabbit and Toad, which operates the 'Dokbi' service. We met CEO Ham Dong-soo at the Rabbit and Toad office in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, and talked about seniors' digital life in general and the Dokbi service.
Seniors looking for family
CEO Ham Dong-su studied e-government and digital transformation at Seoul National University's Graduate School of Public Administration, and founded the senior data research institute 'Almond Age Lab' with his colleagues.
The idea for the Dokbi service started one day when he received an urgent KakaoTalk message from a mother during a meeting with colleagues. The mother of an employee who was traveling asked him to find a nearby restaurant and make a reservation, so CEO Ham stopped the meeting and searched for a restaurant with his colleagues and made a reservation. At that moment, CEO Ham thought, "How many requests like this are there? If we just collect these, wouldn't we be able to get a ton of data?"
In such cases, most people ask their children. According to the '2024 Digital Information Gap Survey', when seniors do not know how to use digital devices or have problems, the first people they turn to are their families (76.4%). Dokbi is a service that will do it for you if you have something to ask your children.
Representative Ham gathered ten mothers who frequently asked their children to do favors, including mothers, and conducted an experiment for a month. He opened a KakaoTalk group chat and asked them to feel free to ask their children for favors. The results were amazing. In one month, 100 requests came in, and the online purchase amount through these requests reached 4 million won. Representative Ham was confident that the business would work.
While running Dokbi, CEO Ham encountered many requests from seniors. He met seniors who called the railway company to ask about subway transfers, seniors who had driven their entire lives but started using public transportation and asked for directions, and seniors who didn’t know how to book travel packages and asked various places for help.
“There are many cases where people give up on finding a good product on a travel platform because they don’t know how to apply. These people often ask me to capture the screen and make a reservation on the spot. They use Coupang or YouTube, but they can’t even imagine that they can book a flight or use complex online services on their phone.”
With a current cumulative membership of 20,000 and 3,000 paid members, Dokbi is gaining attention as a service that allows seniors in their 50s and 60s to conveniently make requests for online shopping, travel reservations, and restaurant searches as if they were asking their children.
Designing a comfortable experience for your children
The mission of 'Rabbit and Toad' has a special meaning. Rabbit and Toad comes from the expressions 'a child like a rabbit' and 'a son like a toad'. It means that the senior customers think of Toad as their children.
“When parents ask their children to do something, they do it through KakaoTalk, so I designed all the experiences based on the premise that ‘they can use KakaoTalk.’”
The biggest difference of Dokbi is in the UI/UX. The initial Dokbi home screen only had a chat window. Since all core functions are done through chat, the UI/UX was designed to be as simple as possible.
The font size is larger than other apps. It is set to large font from the beginning and designed to reduce font size when necessary. Unlike other apps that are set to small font, there is no hassle of having to increase font size. All complicated procedures such as membership registration, payment, and address registration can be easily handled through conversation.
We are working hard to provide close communication for senior citizens. Announcements are also made in the form of video rather than text, as they are less likely to read written announcements and this is a method for senior citizens who are accustomed to face-to-face communication.
Accurate and friendly response
Dokbi's secretary response system operates as a hybrid model in which AI and human counselors collaborate. Tasks that AI directly handles include restaurant or cafe recommendations, basic information searches, and travel destination or flight search. In particular, restaurant recommendations utilize a self-built database, and for travel-related searches, personalized answers are provided that reflect the tastes and previous request history of senior individuals. On the other hand, human counselors, who are professional counselors with secretarial degrees, are in charge of complex and delicate tasks such as airline or hotel reservations, performance ticket reservations, and customized travel schedule planning.
The most important thing in dealing with seniors is accurate and friendly service rather than speed. Mr. Ham said, “Usually, when you ask your children for something, it takes a long time. That’s why they are used to waiting. The important thing is to create a comfortable conversation atmosphere as if you were asking your children, and to build trust through warm words and careful consideration,” explaining Dokbi’s response policy.
Dokbi has developed various automated tools to respond to many requests. When you enter a restaurant link, it automatically generates a response based on a template, and the airline ticket search tool automatically converts complex airline ticket information into text that seniors can easily read. Thanks to these tools, tasks that used to take 10-20 minutes can now be completed in less than 10 seconds.
Recently, as complex requests increase, the importance of partnership strategies has also increased. The collaboration with My Real Trip is a representative example. Through the collaboration with My Real Trip, airline ticket reservations and changes can be processed quickly. My Real Trip can expand its customer base centered on the MZ generation to seniors, and Dokbi can simplify complex operational processes, so it is a mutually beneficial structure. Dokbi is increasing the efficiency of its operational processes through collaboration with insurance companies.
A company that knows seniors well, a company that supports their lives after retirement
Rabbit and Toad are trying to become the company that knows seniors the best. Rabbit and Toad are planning a business that studies seniors, finds out what seniors want, and solves it.
Seniors are very interested in travel. As a result of analyzing the requests of the Dokbi, the main interests were health, money, and travel. Rabbit and Toad decided to focus on developing travel products first. In particular, the travel business is also an important means of building trust with members through offline meetings.
“I want to try to suggest that Dokbi take full responsibility for my life after retirement.”
Just as Baedal Minjok and Coupang suggest specific lifestyles, Dokbi also dreams of becoming a platform that defines the lives of seniors after retirement.
“In the future, I want to make it an online space where seniors can gather and have everything they want. When they retire, they can suggest that they live with Dokbi for a month, sign up for financial products suggested by Dokbi, and receive PT suggested by Dokbi, living a life with Dokbi.”
To this end, we are also considering expanding into the financial and healthcare sectors following travel.
Acquiring 50,000 members and expanding overseas
This year, Dokbi's goal is 50,000 members. It is a 2.5-fold increase from the current 20,000. It is also planning to expand overseas. The reason it is focusing on Japan in particular is because of the similar situation to Korea. The United States is also a region of interest. As the concept of 'Aging in Place' spreads, the need for services for seniors who are aging at home is increasing.
Starting with a mother’s small request, Dokbi has now become an indispensable digital companion for 20,000 seniors. CEO Ham emphasizes, “Even generations that are not digital natives should be able to enjoy the benefits of digital.”
“We believe in a digital world that is friendly to everyone. We believe that seniors can fully utilize digital technology and live better lives.”
The growth of Dokbi goes beyond the simple success of a company. It is also a process of realizing social values such as resolving the digital divide and improving the quality of life for seniors. Attention is focused on how Dokbi will enrich the daily lives of seniors in the future.
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