Dog meetup app MMDC aspires to be AI pet nanny

Some call it social media for dogs, others say it's a dating app for their four-legged friends.

No matter what you call it, the Meet My Dog Challenge (MMDC) app has gone viral among dog lovers – especially those in their 20s and 30s living in cities in the US – the world's biggest pet market. Such success, in just two years since its launch, bodes well for its ambition to become an AI-powered pet nanny.

“(Our) playdate service is doing well. Our (app) users who have met offline have become our loyal customers, and their retention rate is almost 90%,” said Rebekah Younmo Kang, founder and chief executive officer of Momo Project Inc., the developer and operator of MMDC.

MMDC is a platform where pet owners can organize offline neighborhood meetups for their pups based on their dogs' characters and play styles.

For playdates, pet parents create photo profile cards of their dogs on MMDC to introduce them to other pups – through their carers. This is why this app is often called a dog Tinder, the online dating and meetup app for humans launched in 2012.

MMDC was released in the US in November 2022, and as of May, it has more than 15,000 users, of which about 12,000 are living in the US.

In February this year, MMDC started offering a new online service, in which pet parents can create a community of like-minded dog lovers.

“Our (company’s) keyword is ‘connecting  … Through offline events, dogs interact with each other for socialization, and we are seeking to find effective ways to connect dog owners online so they can share valuable knowledge and experience,” said Kang.

The MMDC community feature allows dog owners across the US to ask each other questions and communicate through the app regardless of their location.

“Dog carers raising the same breed can share information (through the app). There is a huge need for networking among dog owners of the same breeds because information varies widely between breeds,” said Kang.

'BEST PERSONALIZED PET CARE'

Building active online communities for pet parents on MMDC is important in fostering the current app into an all-in-one pet care platform – beyond "social media for dogs."

Momo Project was founded in April 2020 with the motto to give “the best personalized care and guidance through connecting pet parents by breed, location and interest,” said Kang.

“We want to help dog owners balance their time and energy wisely between their dogs and other responsibilities to allow them to spend more quality time with their pets.”

With all information about their pets registered with MMDC, they can be connected to other pet carers based on their pet information and specific needs, said Kang.

With accumulated data, Momo Project plans to build an artificial intelligence-powered pet nanny platform, where pet parents can find personalized information for their dogs. Later, it plans to add community commerce and subscription-based pet health checkup and treatment services, which could generate profit.  

Community commerce, or content commerce, refers to entertaining content on platforms like TikTok, that also happens to feature products and connect viewers to brands.

NEED TO BUILD A BIGGER USER BASE

For that reason, MMDC will focus on beefing up its user base first. And it looks encouraging as MMDC achieved nearly 100% organic growth in May.

Momo Project spent nearly nothing on marketing last month but new users increased by 914, said Kang. It spent about $3,000 on marketing on average monthly in the second half of last year.  

In December, it was also chosen as one of Techcrunch’s favorite apps of 2023.

Last month, TikTok influencer corgibobaa with 1.1 million followers posted videos showing his dog choosing a pawfriend among dogs featured on MMDC. The first video garnered 7.1 million views and more than 5,400 comments, followed by the second video with 71,200 views and 108 comments.

MMDC was even featured on a Spanish media site although Momo Project has never officially launched the app outside the US, said Kang. 

As of May 27, Canada and the UK were the second and third-biggest markets for MMDC after the US.

It also has users from other countries, including those in Southeast Asia and Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea. The app is currently only available in English.

Momo Project is still an early-stage startup. With active online community activities and more user buildup, it is strategizing to find more financial backing.

It has so far raised 1.7 billion won ($1.2 million) from investors, including seed funds from 500 Startups, or 500 Global, and consumer tech investor Goodwater.

Momo Project was one of 20 Korean startups selected this year by Asan Voyager, a program designed to assist Korean startups entering the U.S. market by providing acceleration, coaching, community learning and long-term residency support. 

SEASONED ENTREPRENEUR WITH A BIG HEART FOR PETS 

Expectations are high for Kang, who is also a serial entrepreneur, already founding and closing a few startups since 2011.

Momo Project is her third company and only non-politics-related service.

Kang sold her second startup MyCandidate, a mobile app that aggregates information about political candidates in South Korea, to US-headquartered FiscalNote in 2015 and served as FiscalNote’s country manager for three years.

Her tireless workaholic engine, however, broke down when she lost her two beloved dogs unexpectedly in 2018, Kang said.

She said she wasn’t aware of her dogs’ illnesses until just before they died that year – three months apart between their deaths – and the lack of available information about her pets’ diseases led her to set up her fifth company Momo Project in 2020 after quitting her job as FiscalNote’s country manager in Korea.

“I Googled a lot to try to save my dogs because I was given very limited information about my dog’s illnesses and treatment options,” said Kang.

Kang foresees huge potential in the US pet market, forecast to jump to $277 billion by 2030 from $118 in 2019 thanks to millennial pet owners who got their most recent pets during the pandemic, according to Morgan Stanley.

Reflecting the trend, MMDC’s core users are female professional workers in their 20s and 30s living in cities, Kang said.

Write to Sookyung Seo at skseo@hankyung.com

Jennifer Nicholson-Breen edited this article.