A blueprint for the global Taekwondo market drawn by a Korean startup
Taekwondo is a representative Korean cultural content with 700,000 gyms in over 200 countries around the world. However, the actual operation of gyms still relies on manual management and analog methods. Managers had to inefficiently handle everything from membership fee payment confirmation to overdue notifications and individual contacts. Parents had to endure the inconvenience of making inquiries or visiting each one in person to check their children’s class information or progress.
This is why our startup MAS9’s digital innovation in the US Taekwondo market is attracting attention. MAS9 solved the limitations of the analog method with a digital solution, and secured 90 gyms within one month of launching, achieving a high paid conversion rate of 70%.
The secret to securing 90 stamps in just one month of launching
“After the official launch in the US last May, we secured about 40 paid subscription stamps and 50 trial stamps in just one month. Of the free trial stamps, 70% are being converted to paid ones.”
Masnaa CEO Lee Sang-yeop (57) calmly reported Masnain’s early results. This is the result of completing solution development in December 2024 and conducting field tests at eight Taekwondo gyms in the U.S. Behind the high paid conversion rate is the effect felt by gym managers.
“What the managers are most satisfied with is the automation of membership fee management. They say that operational stress has been greatly reduced as the payment confirmation, non-payment notification, and individual contact tasks that were previously handled inefficiently are now handled by the system.”
During the field testing process, we also discovered an unexpected demand. We found that most of the dojos wanted to integrate their own websites with the Mars Nine system, so we added a web hosting product.
An integrated platform that satisfies both the gym and its members
The core of Masnine is its structure that encompasses both corporate customers and their end users. It provides operational efficiency to dojo managers and convenience to students and parents.
“Parents can check their children’s class information, progress status, teacher feedback, attendance records, etc. in real time through personalized apps and websites. The inconvenience of having to inquire or search for information one by one has been eliminated.”
In particular, the 'My Taekwondo Diary' function is popular with parents because it allows them to record and share their children's training and promotion process. It is a structure that naturally induces revisiting the platform due to the strong motivation of interest in children's education.
Build a new revenue pipeline with e-commerce
What Masnine noticed was the hidden opportunity in the American Taekwondo market. In the Taekwondo market, sales of supplies such as uniforms and protective gear account for a large portion, accounting for 57% of the total. However, only 10% of the students actually purchase supplies directly from Taekwondo schools. Most of them were purchasing supplies from outside sources such as shopping malls.
“Managers are looking forward to the ‘One-Click E-Commerce Management System’ scheduled to be released at the end of the year. They can run a dedicated online store for their stamps with just one click without the burden of separate inventory and generate additional revenue.”
Members can purchase uniforms, protective gear, and Taekwondo supplies recommended by the director through a dedicated app. It is a structure that allows for convenient purchase of trustworthy products without having to search externally or visit other shopping malls.
There are also specific plans to evolve beyond a simple management tool into an AI-based comprehensive platform.
“We are developing an automatic attendance system using vision AI and a program to prevent dropouts by analyzing attendance patterns for each student. We also plan to automatically generate customized marketing content that reflects the characteristics of each region and customer using generative AI.”
The personalized education system is also interesting. AI analyzes the trainee's learning data to recommend personalized class content, and a virtual training partner function is being designed to enable effective training at home.
“We also plan to provide a management consulting function that analyzes dojo operation data to predict cash flow for six months ahead and recommends areas and strategies for improvement.”
One of Mars Nine’s competitive advantages is the systematic collaboration structure between the Korean and American teams. The Korean team is in charge of product development and technology design, while the American team is in charge of market analysis and sales, and they are dividing roles based on expertise.
“By utilizing Korea’s excellent IT manpower, we can build a high-quality system at a development cost that is 60% lower than that of the US. On the other hand, the US team operates a ‘customer feedback loop program’ that collects real-time feedback from instructors based on the Taekwondo human network that has been built for over 20 years and immediately delivers it to the Korean development team.”
CEO Lee Sang-yeop appointed the former director of the Kukkiwon training center as an advisor and is building trust and brand awareness through partnerships with the Kukkiwon US branch and major Taekwondo associations. In addition to the initial target of Korean directors in their 40s or older, he has also established a strategy to secure younger generations and foreign directors.
“Along with strengthening marketing through social media, we plan to regularly hold digital transformation training programs for young managers. We are also pursuing multilingual support and customizing the user environment to suit the culture of each region.”
He is also working on partnerships with influential foreign leaders or influencers within the Taekwondo community, as well as strengthening relationships with various Taekwondo associations that young leaders belong to. He explained, “We plan to propose opening a Masnine franchise gym to young instructors who lack capital and know-how in running gyms, and create a win-win structure.”
Aiming for a global Taekwondo ecosystem platform
CEO Lee Sang-yeop, an expert in customer relationship management and big data, also presented specific possibilities for business expansion by utilizing accumulated data.
“With the insurance industry, we can link customized sports injury insurance or health promotion insurance products based on training data. With the medical and health management industry, we are preparing to provide customized nutritional supplements and individual health management programs for growing children.”
In the long term, we are also considering expanding beyond Taekwondo to other Korean cultural content.
“The experience of digitalizing the complex operation system of Taekwondo schools and achieving success in the global market can be fully utilized in the globalization of other Korean cultural contents such as Korean traditional music, Korean food, and Korean language education. Parents and students interested in Taekwondo are not very resistant to other Korean cultures. The platform model and e-commerce know-how that encompass both companies and end users can be applied to the characteristics of each culture.”
We are also planning to expand our martial arts to other martial arts studios. We are preparing flexibility in the terminology and promotion system, modularization of the progress evaluation system, and procurement of specialized products for each martial art to expand to karate, jujitsu, and judo.
CEO Lee Sang-yeop clearly stated Masnine's ultimate goal.
“It will become a comprehensive Taekwondo platform for 700,000 Taekwondo gyms, 1.5 million Taekwondo instructors, and 80 million Taekwondo practitioners in 202 countries around the world. We plan to promote the excellence of Korean culture based on Taekwondo to the world, expand the global Taekwondo base through the value creation of Taekwondo gyms, and actively support the global advancement of excellent Korean Taekwondo instructors.”
Building on its successful launch in the United States, attention is focused on whether Masnine can lead the digital innovation of the global Taekwondo ecosystem. This is why expectations are high for the synergy that will be created by the meeting of our representative cultural content and cutting-edge information technology.
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