Bodyfriend "Invested 52.8 Billion KRW in Massage Chair R&D Over the Past 5 Years"

Focused Investment in AI, Healthcare Robots, and Medical Technologies at Medical R&D Center
Developing Disease Prediction Algorithms by 2025

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Cheol-hyun] Bodyfriend (CEO Park Sang-hyun) announced on the 8th that it has invested 52.8 billion KRW in massage chair research and development (R&D) over the past five years.

Bodyfriend has been focusing on R&D by increasing its research and development expenses by about 30% annually, with 9.6 billion KRW in 2017, 13 billion KRW in 2018, and 16.7 billion KRW last year alone. Especially in the past two years, with 30 billion KRW in R&D expenses, it has boldly invested in various fields including clinical trials centered on the effects of massage chair use, medical new technologies, Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.

Bodyfriend has verified the effects of massage chairs through various clinical trials while developing new massage technologies and healthcare functions. Among them, Bodyfriend’s unique technologies such as the 'Sleep Massage Program' and 'Brain Massage' have proven their effectiveness through joint clinical trials with university hospitals. Clinical trials have also verified that consistent use of Bodyfriend massage chairs reduces lower back discomfort.

The Korean Neuropsychiatric Association also announced experimental results showing that general individuals with negative cognition and mild anxiety who consistently received 'Mental Massage' applied in 'Pharaoh SⅡ' and 'Pharaoh Ⅱ' experienced stress relief. The world’s first developed 'Tinnitus Massage' and 'Meditation Massage' technologies were unveiled at 'CES 2020' last January.

The organizational structure is also systematically established. Bodyfriend has about 200 researchers dedicated to R&D across three major convergent research organizations: the Technology Research Institute, Design Research Institute, and Medical R&D Center. In particular, the Medical R&D Center, led by professional medical staff, is proving the correlation between massage chairs and health while developing new healthcare technologies. Currently, this center employs dozens of specialized medical personnel, including seven specialists in orthopedics, neurosurgery, internal medicine, otolaryngology, psychiatry, dentistry, and Korean rehabilitation medicine, as well as brain engineers, physical therapists, and music therapists.

The results of research and development are also reflected in Bodyfriend’s intellectual property rights. As of 2020, it has filed a total of 2,413 patents, trademarks, and designs, of which 1,354 have been registered.

Bodyfriend plans to continue investing more than 20 billion KRW annually for more aggressive research and development. The company envisions transforming into a healthcare robot company that monitors health status daily at home through simple biometric data on massage chairs, accumulates customer indicators as big data via sensors and IoT in massage chairs, and manages health with AI disease prediction algorithms.

Cho Soo-hyun, head of Bodyfriend’s Medical R&D Center, said, "In addition to various medical achievements already confirmed, we will soon reveal clinical trial results related to adolescents’ learning effects, life extension effects, diseases such as dementia, and Korea’s first medical massage chair Phantom Medical. We will further accelerate R&D so that customers can maintain a healthy lifestyle simply by using products incorporating various technologies aimed at extending human healthy lifespan by 10 years."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.