Interview】"babycare+" & "babycare+ch," a portal site for cross-disciplinary use of baby tech and unlimited access to over 100 short videos useful for childcare

First Ascent Co., Ltd. is a cutting-edge baby tech company in Japan that has developed a very popular childcare recording application "Papatto Ikko" with "baby cry diagnosis" and a bed-light sleep trainer "ainenne" that won the "CES® 2021 Innovation Awards. The company is a leading-edge baby tech company in Japan. In March 2022, the company will launch a new brand, "babycare+," based on the concept of "peace of mind in child rearing," and as its first service, it will offer more than 100 short videos on child rearing supervised by experts, which can be viewed by viewers. The BabyTech.jp editorial department interviewed Tomoyuki Hattori, CEO of First Ascent Inc. and Yudai Chiba, Director and CMO of First Ascent (titles below omitted), to learn more about "babycare+" and "babycare+ channel. We asked them about the outline of "Baby Care Plus" and "Baby Care Plus Channel," how they were developed, and their future plans.

(We spoke to...)

First Ascent Inc.
Tomoyuki Hattori, Representative Director and CEO

First Ascent Inc.
Yudai Chiba, Director and CMO

Aims to add "technology," "experts," and "partners" to parenting

Editorial:Thank you very much for your time today. Could you begin by giving us an overview of the new brand "Baby Care Plus" and the new service called "Baby Care Plus Channel" and its features?

Chiba:BabyCare Plus is our new business offering based on the concept of "peace of mind in child rearing. Until now, we have provided the "Papatto Ikko" childcare record application and the "ainenne" IoT device separately, but from now on, we will create a framework that allows users to acquire our new common ID, the "Baby Care Plus ID," and use that ID to use our entire service. The new framework will allow users to use our entire service with their new common ID.

In Japanese, the phrase "Baby Care Plus" means "pluses to child-rearing. To be more specific, "plus technology," "plus experts," and "plus partners" are the concepts behind the services offered by BabyCare Plus.

For example, technology plus is the provision of so-called baby tech, such as Papatto-Kyotoiku and ainenne. And "plus specialists" means providing services in cooperation with childcare specialists, such as "Papatto Ikkoji@Seminar". In order to realize our goal of "conveying information with evidence," which has always been important to us, we believe that we must not only utilize AI, but also work together with experts. Finally, plus partners means creating an environment where dads and moms, as well as those around them, can cooperate in childcare. For example, Papatto Childcare could link information on multiple smartphones so that partners could cooperate with each other. We want to provide an environment where not only moms and dads, but also grandparents and grandmothers can easily participate in childcare. To this end, we would like to create a system that delivers the latest childcare information and encourages participation in childcare.

Short videos available on the web to lower the hurdle for users.

Editorial:Thank you very much. So the first service offered by that Baby Care Plus brand is the "Baby Care Plus Channel", is that correct?

Chiba:Although many people have used our Papatto Childcare service, "downloading an application" and "keeping a record of child-rearing" are burdensome in their own right. After discussions and research on how we could deliver child-rearing information more easily in the midst of the confusion of raising a child for the first time, we came to the conclusion that providing "short videos" that can be viewed in a short time as a web service would be suitable. Since opportunities for parents to listen to experts at real events have been drastically reduced due to the new coronavirus infection, we believe that there is a great need to obtain child-rearing information at home through smartphones.

Editorial:It is true that short videos on YouTube, Instagram, etc. are a trend in the world!

Chiba:To add one more point, the "Papatto Ikkoiku@Seminar" that we have offered through Papatto Ikkoiku, such as "seminars for those who are worried about their baby's sleep" and "seminars for those whose children are about to start weaning," were highly satisfactory, but they could only be accessed through the application, However, because they could only be accessed through the app and each content was a 60-minute live video service, they were burdensome for busy users, especially those raising children, who had to commit to a certain amount of time to view them. Therefore, we have returned to the convenience of the user and drastically changed the direction of the service.

Short videos made with thorough attention to detail under the supervision of experts

Editorial:Can you tell us more about the Baby Care Plus channel?

Chiba:By first registering your ID with BabyCare Plus for free, you will be able to view more than 100 short videos on the BabyCare Plus channel. We will pick out the best questions and produce short videos under the supervision of our experts. In addition, subscribers to the Premium Plan, which costs 500 yen per month, can participate in LIVE seminars by childcare experts and view archived videos of these seminars.

Editorial:It's a lot of work to have 100 short videos at the time of release.

Chiba:We plan to add more and more in response to your concerns and questions. In addition, for those who first learned about us through BabyCare Plus or the BabyCare Plus Channel, we have also prepared a flow line that allows you to use Papa's Childcare and AINENNE with the same registration ID.

Editorial:Were there any particular challenges or innovations in creating the short video?

Chiba:The first feature is that trusted experts have appeared in and supervised the videos, providing evidence-based advice. In addition, we have had the cooperation of many mom monitor users to adjust the tone of voice and playback speed. We do not consider the current form to be complete, but plan to continue fine tuning in the future as more people use the service and as we gather feedback.

Baby Care Plus supports "safe child-rearing" and promotes baby tech.

Editorial:At this point, please tell us about your company's vision of transforming child-rearing with the power of technology, which you and Mr. Hattori and Mr. Chiba have incorporated into BabyCare Plus.

Hattori:When I was raising my children for the first time, I saw a site where the Internet was full of SEO-measured, untrue information, and if such information could not be handled with good scrutiny, it would be extremely stressful. At that time, I decided to improve the situation by examining the information myself, but I had a very hard time distinguishing whether each piece of information was evidence-based or not. At that time, I wanted a place where evidence-based information could be gathered and where experts could teach me. This ideal became a reality with the release of the BabyCare Plus Channel.

What we also want to convey through the Baby Care Plus brand is that utilizing technology in childcare does not mean neglecting childcare, but rather, it means getting to know your baby better and being able to take better care of him or her. So we want to use technology to provide a better environment for babies and a better environment for moms and dads. The brand name "BabyCare Plus" expresses our desire to help people raise their children by adding various things such as technology, products, and various solutions.

Chiba:To add to that, I have a strong desire to spread BabyTech in Japan as quickly as possible, and BabyCare Plus was the best solution for that. I believe that BabyCare Plus, which allows users to register to use a variety of BabyTech services, is one way to encourage more people to use BabyTech, and is a service that has taken a step forward.

In addition, in today's world, there will always be a smartphone in one hand of a parenting father or mother. Therefore, we envision a usage scenario where, when a mom or dad is lost in the overflowing child-rearing information in the world, they can quickly watch a short video supervised by a trusted expert on the Baby Care Plus channel at ....... This kind of situation has the potential to be used by almost anyone during child-rearing.

Another thing we would like to realize is that we would like pre-parents and pre-moms to see this information before their children are born. Furthermore, I think it is necessary to increase the number of people involved in child-rearing in society as a whole, in other words, the "population involved in child-rearing. Therefore, we also hope that the BabyCare Plus channel will provide up-to-date child-rearing knowledge to those who have reached the end of their child-rearing years or who have chosen not to have children, and create an opportunity for them to think about what they can do for themselves. ......

The world of BabyCare Plus is expanding rapidly in the future.

Editorial:Thank you very much. Finally, can you tell us about the future development of Baby Care Plus?

Chiba:As for future development, we are considering several ideas. First, we are preparing a service called "Sleep Dashboard" that analyzes children's sleep data and provides advice from a professional advisor. In addition, to extend the "Partner Plus" aspect of the BabyCare Plus service concept, we would like to provide a place for moms and dads who use our service to connect with each other, a "BabyCare Plus Community" of sorts. This will include not only online, but also real events.

In addition, for example, a legal amendment is scheduled to come into effect in April 2022 that will make it easier for men to take childcare leave, and we are considering a service for companies to coincide with this change. Another possibility is to have local governments register with BabyCare Plus and have the videos available to moms and dads in those municipalities.

After the interview

First Ascent, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary since its establishment, has been collecting and analyzing big data related to childcare accumulated by Papatto Childcare and ainenne over the years. We believe that there are many hints in this data that will lead to solutions to the childcare problems of many fathers and mothers in the world. We are sure that even more surprising baby tech will emerge from these hints. We will continue to keep an eye on the company's activities in the future!

In addition, there is a campaign running until the end of March 2022 to celebrate the release of BabyCare Plus. This is a very special campaign, so please apply for it!

Baby Care Plus Campaign" Application Page
https://babycare-plus.com/contents/lp.html