'Trusted Content' Idleulnara, U+tv's Flagship, Captivates Attention

Focus on Expanding Interactive Content
Diversification of Homeschooling and English Education
1.5 Million Monthly Users

Rising as a Leading Service in 5 Years Since Launch
Popularity Gained by Creating with Parents' Hearts
Careful Consideration of Beneficial Content for Children

Interview with Moon Hyun-il, Head of U+ Kids Nation Business at LG Uplus

Moon Hyun-il, Head of Idelnara Business at LG Uplus

[Asia Economy Reporter Gu Eun-mo] "About half of the U+ Kids Nation team members are kids moms raising children, and we focus on creating content that overwhelmed and stressed parents can trust and confidently show their kids."

While all parents share the desire to show their children fun and educational content, choosing what and how to show it is not an easy task for them. Moon Hyun-il, head of U+ Kids Nation business at LG Uplus, explained in an interview with Asia Economy on the 14th that the background behind 'U+ Kids Nation' becoming a flagship service of U+ tv lies in planning and providing the service by actively understanding and addressing the overwhelming feelings of parents who have to balance work and childcare.

U+ Kids Nation, LG Uplus’s IPTV 'U+ tv' dedicated children’s content service, was first launched in 2017 with the goal of providing a TV service that parents can safely show their children. Moon said, "Parents tended to feel guilty about showing TV to their children just to watch something else or take a short break, so U+ Kids Nation started from the idea of creating a service that parents can use without guilt and with peace of mind." To this end, it offers features such as 'Eye Protection Mode' that blocks blue light, 'Viewing Management Function' that controls the number and duration of viewing, a child-only user experience (UX), popular bestseller book videos, and premium English content.

With active content improvements every year, U+ Kids Nation has established itself as a flagship service within U+ tv in just five years since its launch. The number of users has grown by 20% annually, currently reaching about 1.5 million monthly users on average. Moon said, "Considering that the number of households with children decreases by more than 5% every year, the increase in U+ Kids Nation users is encouraging," adding, "It also plays a significant role in attracting new customers and retaining those whose contracts have expired in the field."

Moon cited the strength of U+ Kids Nation as its ability to quickly reflect user feedback through various channels. He said, "About half of the U+ Kids Nation team members are kids moms. They directly use the service and actively incorporate inconveniences they experience as well as opinions posted on the online community for U+ Kids Nation customers called 'Uplus Mom Salon.' We persistently identify and solve what children and parents want, and the results are showing." Examples include improving the service to allow users to bookmark desired content and manage it via playlists, and adding password protection to 'YouTube Kids' last month to enable usage control functions.

Recently, U+ Kids Nation has been offering more proactive content curation. This is because many opinions have been received about difficulties in selecting appropriate content as the variety of content increases. A representative example is the launch of U+ Kids Nation 4.0 last November, which prominently featured homeschooling. U+ Kids Nation partnered with Cheongdam Learning, an English education specialist institution, to systematize a total of 2,500 English education contents by level and week, enabling step-by-step learning. For book content, rather than simply expanding the selection through complete collections, the service focuses on providing personalized recommendations by diagnosing the child’s tendencies, such as encouraging adventurous stories for more reserved children.

Going forward, U+ Kids Nation plans to focus on expanding interactive content that allows children to directly view the screen and participate in content consumption. The recent introduction of 'Yuppie Pen,' a child-only remote control capable of motion recognition for indoor rhythm games, is in line with this approach. Moon said, "Interaction between the screen and movements helps development and enhances educational effects," adding, "In the upcoming U+ Kids Nation 5.0, we will focus on providing services that aid children’s development and education through interactive services rather than one-way viewing content."

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