LG Electronics, S.M. Entertainment launch home fitness service

LG Electronics and S.M. Entertainment unveiled on Thursday their joint venture -- Fitness Candy -- to target the home training market by offering digital workout content.

The joint venture will have the home appliance maker develop an application, cloud server, online platforms, and necessary devices such as muscle-training equipment, indoor bicycle and smartband for Fitness Candy’s home fitness services. LG's counterpart, S.M. Entertainment will take the charge of providing various content featuring the company’s artists.

“If the paradigm of home appliance has focused on creating functions and performance-oriented products, LG Electronics will lead the smart home appliance paradigm to focus on customer experiences,” said Cho Joo-wan, CEO of LG Electronics.

Fitness Candy plans to launch a subscription-based application that can be linked to personal smart devices as early as September, according to officials.

“Our goal for 2023 is to have 50,000 paid subscribers and sales of 10 billion won ($7.7 million). For 2024, 300,000 paid subscribers and 100 billion won in sales. For 2025, 1 million paid subscribers and 500 billion won in sales,” said Kim Bee-oh, Fitness Candy’s chief strategy officer.

Differentiating from Apple Fitness+, Fitness Candy CEO Shim Woo-taek said they will add a twist of entertainment factors including music and dance content on top of the training programs.

Fitness Candy’s programs will be divided into six categories: strength training, core workout, interval exercise, stretching, dance and meditation. Each program will last between 10 to 40 minutes and new content will be updated every week.

Shim said he expects the monthly subscription fee to be between 20,000 and 30,000 won.

According to officials, the two firms invested a total of 5 billion won in establishing Fitness Candy. LG Electronics will own 51 percent of the shares while SM entertainment will own 49 percent of the shares.

The global fitness app market was estimated at $1.1 billion in 2021 and is forecast to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 17.6 percent from 2022 to 2030, according to market analysis by Global View Research. 

By Kan Hyeong-woo (hwkan@heraldcorp.com)