LG Elec, SM to launch home fitness app in July

LG Electronics Inc. and SM Entertainment Co. will jointly launch next month a home fitness app nine months after the project was delayed in September last year.

An industry source on Sunday said Fitness Candy, a joint venture between both companies, will begin official service next month. The beta version released this month was for Apple only but Fitness Candy will be released on Google Play in the official launch.

A paid subscription service will start this year and the forthcoming smart band informs heart rate and calories burned in connection with the app.

What differentiates Fitness Candy from Apple’s Fitness+, the market forerunner, is motivation. The former induces a healthy lifestyle by giving points for completing simple missions such as drinking a glass of water in the morning and eating a healthy salad as a meal. Points can be exchanged for Starbucks Giftcons or those on the web portal Naver.

Exclusive exercise content is also available such as no-equipment routines and dances taught by social media influencers like model Han Hye-jin and dancer Aiki.

Fitness Candy suffered internal turmoil for a year after the company was formed in June last year. Official service was supposed to launch in September last year, but got delayed after Shim Woo-taek resigned as CEO less than four months after the company’s establishment.

Fitness Candy in a reshuffle hired Lee Seung-joon, former chief marketing officer of Drama & Co., the operator of the business card app Remember, to replace Shim.

“Our launch date was delayed after we changed our business model to reflect shifts on the home market caused by the end of COVID-19,” a Fitness Candy source said.

Write to Ye-Rin Choi at rambutan@hankyung.com