Gifts are a big part of any celebration – birthdays, anniversaries, achievement milestones, etc. However, most times, the gift receiver and giver have different ideas, and eventually, the gift doesn’t give the satisfaction it should. To resolve this issue, Korean startup GED’s CEO David Kang has created a unique ‘crowdfunding’ platform called ‘Mission of Santa’ (MOS) to make gift-giving and receiving satisfactory for both givers and receivers.
Kang’s MOS platform, ‘Mission of Santa’, is a service provided mainly through funding by acquaintances or friends and is a convergence concept of purchasing agency and crowdfunding. MOS creation has also been inspired by the traditional Korean concept of ‘Dure’, where the community collectively puts in efforts to solve individual problems. MOS platform service has been planned with the motivation that although celebrators, such as for birthdays and anniversaries, always long for new gifts, the satisfaction of gifts they receive from their friends is usually not so high. Also, if all of the friends’ economic contributions are added together, they will have sufficient purchasing power for celebrators’ wishlist.
For example, if the celebrator specifies the gift and when the target amount for the gift is calculated, the funding begins. The celebrator confirms the link or model number of the desired gift from shopping malls for the project. The difference between an existing crowdfunding platform and MOS is that it targets friends or acquaintances, not an unspecified majority. Also, the target amount of funding is not allowed to exceed, and it is automatically terminated when 100% of the target amount is met. The celebrator can open a new project.
The founding team of MOS consists of David Kang and his friends from Sweden, Japan, and China. Kang has completed patent application and business secret registration for the concept. The startup has the best team in the marketing, development, and operation department. It plans to expand the MOS platform globally after its launch in South Korea. The primary revenue model for MOS is the funding agency fee. The startup plans to get more competitive with other online companies in the future with more users. It also aims to eventually set up a donation system for children and students in orphanages.
