Company Coffee and Online Classes... Subscription Economy for Employee Welfare Draws Attention

Reflecting Diverse Employee Preferences within Companies
Popular Comprehensive Curation Service for Food, Beverages, and Classes

Companies are using customized subscription economy services to improve employee welfare. The photo shows the Jura Office fully automatic coffee machine ‘GIGA X8c G2’ used in an office cafeteria. Photo by Jura

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] Customized subscription economy services are spreading among companies as part of efforts to improve employee welfare levels.

According to the industry on the 3rd, the subscription economy trend is influencing even companies. The subscription economy refers to regularly providing consumers with desired products or services in exchange for a fixed fee. Subscription services, which started with newspapers, magazines, and milk delivery, have grown centered on content and groceries and are now expanding into the business-to-business (B2B) sector.

In particular, customized curation services are becoming established in companies. This is because there is increasing preference for comprehensive curation services that select, deliver, display, and continuously manage food and beverages tailored to employees' tastes.

Coffee, one of the most preferred beverages among office workers, is a representative example. As demand for customized coffee that allows enjoying coffee shop-level flavors according to personal preferences in the office rises, major companies are introducing professional coffee curation services by installing fully automatic coffee machines instead of instant coffee in office lounges and pantries.

The Swiss fully automatic coffee machine brand ‘JURA’ offers a company-customized coffee curation service called ‘OCS (Office Coffee System)’ and stated that it helps create a premium cafeteria within companies.

JURA OCS analyzes the corporate or business environment to provide the most suitable coffee machines and options. It offers optimized services such as maintenance and repair of fully automatic coffee machines, coffee bean supply, barista support, and catering according to office environment, user-specific customization, and coffee preferences, thereby raising the level of coffee curation in Korea.

The product maximizes the original taste, aroma, and flavor of coffee beans with a rich aroma and delivers high-quality coffee tailored to customers' diverse tastes. In particular, the GIGA X8c G2 incorporates JURA’s innovative coffee extraction technology to always deliver perfect coffee flavor even in offices with large numbers of users. The ‘Bypass’ technology applied to JURA’s premium line of commercial coffee machines extracts espresso and hot water through separate channels, eliminating the astringent and bitter taste of coffee, and quantifies the mixing amount of water and coffee, allowing customers to enjoy differentiated coffee unlike conventional coffee, the company explained.

Class101 provides employee welfare and education services through its B2B subscription service, 'CLASS101 Business.' Photo by Class101

Subscription Economy Taking Care of Employees’ Education and Hobbies

Class101, an online class platform offering various categories of content, provides employee welfare and education services through its B2B subscription service ‘CLASS101 Business.’ With the rise of the ontact era, as companies encourage remote work and face-to-face activities decrease, corporate interest in this new alternative for in-house welfare is growing.

CLASS101 Business offers over 1,000 diverse courses selectable according to the needs of companies and institutions, including hobby classes responsible for employees’ work-life balance such as art, exercise, and drawing; career classes to improve employees’ practical skills in business/productivity, marketing, and data science; and finance classes to learn about stock and real estate income generation.

A CLASS101 representative stated, "Currently, prestigious companies, institutions, and schools such as SK Telecom, Nike Korea, Samsung Card, Innocean, Hyundai Glovis, Kakao, Small Enterprise and Market Service, Korea Credit Guarantee Fund, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), and Yeungnam University have adopted and are utilizing the service."

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