Key judgment
Korea is already a super-aged society, and parent care leans heavily on the individual guardian’s time and judgment.
MARKET & BUSINESS MODEL
Korea has aged, but guardians
still lack a place to hand things off.
The starting point of silver care is not the amount of information, but the judgment and follow-through a guardian must actually handle. We organized the market structure and business model from public sources.
01 · KOREAN MARKET
Confirmed factKorea has aged,
but guardians have no place to hand things off.
Korea has already become a super-aged society. Yet a parent’s care, hospital, cost, and daily-service issues still depend on the individual guardian’s time and judgment.
What is confirmed
20.3% of the population is 65+ (2025); there are 1.165 million long-term care recipients (2024), of whom 79.6% live at home.
Why it matters
Because so many recipients live at home, choosing and comparing home services falls on guardians.
What is not confirmed
We have not found an official figure for guardians’ caregiving time and burden.
There are 927,866 home-living recipients; if each has a family caregiver, the target is at least about 930,000 households (the number of guardians is an assumption, not a confirmed figure).
How fast is the 65+ share of Korea’s population growing?
From 17.4% in 2022 to 20.3% in 2025, projected at 30.9% in 2036 and above 40% in 2050. Only ‘over 40%’ is published for 2050, so it is shown as 40.
% of total population
- 2022 17.4% actual
- 2025 20.3% actual
- 2036 30.9% projected
- 2050 40%+ projected
- 2072 47.7% projected
Long-term care benefit cost grew about 1.6× in four years
Benefit cost is the insurer’s share plus the user’s co-payment. It grew from KRW 9.8248 trillion in 2020 to KRW 16.1762 trillion in 2024. Forecasts were not confirmed, so none are shown.
KRW trillion (annual benefit cost)
- 2020 9.8T actual
- 2021 11.1T actual
- 2022 12.6T actual
- 2023 14.5T actual
- 2024 16.2T actual
Source Korea Data Agency, 2025 Statistics on the Aged · Statistics Korea population projections 2022–2072 (policy briefing) · Statistics Korea, ‘Outlook for the older population’ |Checked 2026-10-06 |Official statistics / laws |Actuals confirmed · projections estimated
Source NHIS 2024 Long-Term Care Insurance Statistical Yearbook |Checked 2026-10-06 |Official statistics / laws |Confirmed values
Long-term care recipients are everyone who has received a long-term care grade. They are counted under one grading system whether they use home benefits or facility benefits. Of 1,165,030 recipients at the end of December 2024, 927,866 (79.6%) lived at home at the time of assessment, 135,390 (11.6%) in nursing homes, and 80,960 (6.9%) in nursing hospitals. All figures below are from the National Health Insurance Service ‘2024 Long-Term Care Insurance Statistical Yearbook’.
Grade breakdown of 1.165 million recipients (end of December 2024)
Grades 4, 5, and the cognitive-support grade total 699,544, or 60% of recipients. There are no separate home and facility grades; it is one grading system.
10,000 persons
- Grade 1 55K
- Grade 2 99K
- Grade 3 311K
- Grade 4 536K
- Grade 5 135K
- Cognitive 28K
Benefit users rose by about 330,000 in four years
From 807,067 in 2020 to 1,140,725 in 2024: people who used a benefit at least once during the year.
10,000 persons (used at least once a year)
- 2020 807K actual
- 2021 899K actual
- 2022 999K actual
- 2023 1.073M actual
- 2024 1.141M actual
Source NHIS 2024 Long-Term Care Insurance Statistical Yearbook |Checked 2026-10-06 |Official statistics / laws |Confirmed values
Where do recipients live? (end of December 2024)
| Residence | Recipients | Share | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home | 927,866 | 79.6% | Centered on people living at home who can receive home benefits. |
| Nursing home | 135,390 | 11.6% | Facilities where facility-benefit recipients live. |
| Nursing hospital | 80,960 | 6.9% | Recipients who are hospitalized. |
| Group home for the elderly | 4,781 | 0.4% | Small facilities with home-like living conditions. |
| Residential care, short-term care facilities, other | 16,033 | 1.4% | 1,982 in residential care, 493 in short-term care, 13,558 other. |
Residence is based on the long-term care assessment. It counts people who held eligibility at year-end and excludes the deceased.
Source NHIS 2024 Long-Term Care Insurance Statistical Yearbook |Checked 2026-10-06 |Official statistics / laws |Confirmed values
Core statistics at a glance
20.3%
Korea’s 65+ share
Entered the super-aged range in 2025, and projected to exceed 40% in 2050.
1.165 million
Long-term care recipients
Recipients under the 2024 insurance system; annual benefit cost was KRW 16.1762 trillion.
KRW 1.25M a year
Annual out-of-pocket medical cost per person 65+
In 2023, medical cost per person was KRW 5.306M a year, of which out-of-pocket was KRW 1.252M (about KRW 440,000 and KRW 100,000 a month).
KRW 1.5M a month
Average service cost (including government support)
The insurer’s about KRW 1.365M plus the user’s about KRW 130,000; what the guardian pays averages about KRW 130,000 (about 8.7%). A mixed home/facility average, excluding non-covered items such as facility meals.
Source Korea Data Agency, 2025 Statistics on the Aged · NHIS 2024 Long-Term Care Insurance Statistical Yearbook |Checked 2026-10-06 |Official statistics / laws |Confirmed values
Home and facility use and cost Home benefits, facility benefits, insurer payments, co-payments
Key judgment
The insurer pays most of the service cost; what guardians pay directly is the co-payment.
What is confirmed
A service user costs about KRW 1.5M a month on average, of which the user pays about KRW 130,000 (about 8.7%). The statutory co-payment is 15% for home and 20% for facility.
Why it matters
Service fees and the cost of organizing and confirming are separate, so the value of a report lies in saved time and verification.
Limit
Actual co-payments and extra costs must be confirmed with the institution. Non-covered items such as facility meals are excluded from the average.
Home benefits are services received while living at home; facility benefits are received by living long-term in a facility. Within home benefits, home visits and day/night care (care centers used during daytime) account for most of the cost. Users in the table below are people who used that benefit at least once in the year; one person can use several benefits, so the total differs from the total number of users.
| Category | Benefit | Government definition | Users | Providers | Insurer’s payment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | Home visit care | Care workers visit the recipient’s home and support physical and household activities. | 675,070 | 16,522 | KRW 6.1977T |
| Home | Day/night care | Care provided at an institution for part of the day, including support for physical activity and training to maintain and improve function. | 213,428 | 5,573 | KRW 2.3863T |
| Home | Welfare equipment | Provides equipment needed for daily living and physical activity, or visits homes to support rehabilitation. | 600,141 | 1,875 | KRW 346.1B |
| Home | Home bathing | Visits the home with bathing equipment to provide bathing. | 130,904 | 4,432 | KRW 253.5B |
| Home | Home nursing | Nurses visit homes on a doctor’s instruction to provide nursing, treatment assistance, care consultation, or oral hygiene. | 22,128 | 659 | KRW 49.2B |
| Home | Short-term care | Care at an institution for a limited period within limits set by ministry decree, including physical-activity support. | 2,372 | 67 | KRW 8.5B |
| Facility | Nursing home | Admits elderly people with serious impairment from dementia, stroke, or similar diseases, providing meals, care, and daily-living conveniences. | 261,051 | 4,814 | KRW 5.1757T |
| Facility | Group home for the elderly | Provides home-like living conditions, meals, care, and other daily-living conveniences to elderly people with dementia, stroke, or similar conditions. | 18,965 | 1,764 | KRW 328.4B |
The insurer’s payment is the total benefit cost minus the recipient’s co-payment (home KRW 9.2412T, facility KRW 5.5041T, integrated home service KRW 22.3B, total KRW 14.7675T; rounding makes the parts differ from the total by KRW 100M). The statutory co-payment is 15% for home and 20% for facility; after reductions, the actual share works out to about 8.7% (insurer’s share 91.3%). Home visits are 67.1% of the insurer’s home-benefit payments and day/night care 25.8%. This is why guardians struggle to compare cost and service on their own: there are eight benefit types, and even the same service costs differently by grade and way of use.
Source NHIS 2024 Long-Term Care Insurance Statistical Yearbook |Checked 2026-10-06 |Official statistics / laws |Confirmed values
Terminology notes Government definitions of long-term care terms (Notes 1–10)
- Note 1 · Long-term care recipient
- A person recognized for long-term care who still held eligibility at year-end (the deceased excluded). Grades are 1–5 and the cognitive-support grade. Source: NHIS 2024 Long-Term Care Insurance Statistical Yearbook
- Note 2 · Long-term care grade
- Set by assessment score. Grade 1: 95 or more (needs full help with daily life); Grade 2: 75 to under 95; Grade 3: 60 to under 75; Grade 4: 51 to under 60; Grade 5: dementia, 45 to under 51; cognitive-support grade: dementia, under 45. Source: Ministry of Health and Welfare, Yearbook
- Note 3 · Benefit user
- A recipient who used a long-term care benefit at least once in the year. Source: Yearbook notes
- Note 4 · Long-term care benefit
- Services such as support with physical and household activity or nursing care, or cash paid in their place, for people recognized as unable to manage daily life alone for six months or more. Source: Long-Term Care Insurance Act, Article 2
- Note 5 · Home benefit
- Home visit care, home bathing, home nursing, day/night care, short-term care, and other home benefits (welfare equipment). Source: Act, Article 23
- Note 6 · Facility benefit
- Benefits provided by long-term residence in an elderly welfare facility run by a long-term care institution, with support for physical activity and training. Includes nursing homes and group homes. Source: Act, Article 23; Yearbook
- Note 7 · Day/night care
- The statutory term is day/night care. A home benefit in which a recipient living at home is cared for at an institution for part of the day; commonly called a day-care center. Source: Act, Article 23
- Note 8 · Benefit cost and insurer’s payment
- Benefit cost is the insurer’s payment plus the co-payment (non-covered items excluded); the insurer’s payment is the portion paid by the National Health Insurance Service. Source: Yearbook notes
- Note 9 · Long-term care institution
- An institution designated under Article 31 of the Act that provides long-term care benefits. Source: Act, Article 2
- Note 10 · Integrated home service
- A service in which one institution combines five home services (day/night care, home visit care, home bathing, home nursing, short-term care) to fit the recipient’s condition and needs. Source: Yearbook
Source Long-Term Care Insurance Act, Art. 2 (definitions) · Long-Term Care Insurance Act, Art. 23 (types of benefits) · Ministry of Health and Welfare, Understanding long-term care insurance policy |Checked 2026-10-06 |Official statistics / laws |Confirmed values
02 · CUSTOMER · PAYER · SUPPLIER
Business hypothesisWho is the customer, who pays,
and who delivers the service
That the user and the payer differ is the starting point of this model. A guardian is not buying information; they hand off what is hard to do themselves and have the result confirmed. Service fees and our fee for organizing and consulting are paid separately.
| Party | Role | What they do | How money moves |
|---|---|---|---|
| The parent | Recipient of care | Their situation reaches us through the guardian. | Often does not pay directly. |
| Adult child or guardian (40–60) | Decision-maker and payer | Sends the care problem and provides only needed material (grade, services in use, dates, area). Receives a one-page result and decides the next action. | Pays the operator for organizing, consulting, and result summaries. Pays service providers directly for services. |
| Baskhanbio Silver Care (design plan) | Intake, organizing, comparison, report | Reviews the request and sorts it into seven types (care grade, cost, hospital accompaniment, visiting service, daily support, housing, end-of-life). Explains insurer rules and costs in the guardian’s terms, points to suitable providers, and sends the result on one page. | Receives the guardian’s fee. Does not hold money on behalf of providers; any fee for connecting providers is decided only after legal review. |
| Service provider | Delivers on-site services | Directly performs on-site services such as hospital accompaniment, home visits, visiting beauty care, and welfare equipment. Service quality and accident liability rest with the provider, and insurance coverage is checked. | Receives service fees from the guardian. For government-supported services, charges only the set co-payment. |
| Insurer and local government (public desk) | Runs the system | Handles grade applications and assessments, care plans, and benefit guidance. This service does not replace the public desk; it helps with comparing, booking, and confirming after a grade is set. | Premiums and co-payment rates are set by law (home 15%, facility 20%). |
Where revenue could arise (business hypothesis)
- When a report is delivered
A fee arises per case when a situation, comparison, or action-readiness deliverable is delivered.
- Consultation
A consultation fee arises when a practitioner’s explanation is needed on grades, cost, facilities, or hospital issues.
- Monthly guardian report
Used monthly by children living far away who want to check on a parent every month.
- Institution and corporate partnership
Institutions and companies can also pay, as in employee parent-care support.
Any fee for connecting service providers is decided only after legal review, including under the Employment Security Act. Service fees and this business’s fees are always kept separate.
How repeat use is expected to arise (business hypothesis)
Care problems do not end once; they recur whenever circumstances change.
- ·When the parent’s condition or life changes (readmission, a fall, grade change)
- ·When the chosen institution is unavailable or the wait grows long
- ·When cost or terms of use change
- ·When another family member has a similar problem
- ·When a child living far away wants to check the situation every month
Where partners are needed
- Hospital social work and discharge support teams
A touchpoint guardians can use before discharge
- Home-care and day-care institutions
Answer inquiries about hours, waiting, and cost
- Institutional and corporate welfare (B2B)
Partnerships that ease employees’ parent-care burden
03 · DOMESTIC LANDSCAPE
Needs further verificationStrong players exist,
but a guardian-centered role is still open.
Korea has strong players in caregiver matching, directly operated home care, and facility search. Baskhanbio Silver Care does not compete head-on; we are reviewing an approach that organizes the comparing, booking, and confirming guardians must do themselves after a grade is set.
| Area | Player | Published indicators | What is left to the guardian (the gap) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public desk | National Health Insurance Service long-term care insurance (inquiries 1577-1000) | Runs application, assessment (the NHIS visits to check condition), grading, care plan (a document setting the services to use), and notification; applications are taken at NHIS branches. | We found no material showing the public desk handles choosing an institution, booking, and confirming results after grading. |
| Integrated senior care | Caredoc | Cumulative transaction value of KRW 102.2B; more than 70,000 care coordinators to date. | Whether it explains cost, grade, and facility status in the guardian’s terms could not be confirmed from the company’s business introduction alone. |
| Directly operated home care | Caring | 63 directly operated branches nationwide and about 900 full-time staff (as of July 2025). | Centered on services it operates itself, so it differs from comparing several providers and handing off (scope checked: company brochure). |
The public desk handles application and assessment. This service handles the comparing, booking, and confirming a guardian must do after assessment. Other caregiver-matching services such as Carenation were left out because no official figures were confirmed.
Source Caredoc business introduction · Caring company introduction |Checked 2026-10-06 |Company disclosure |Confirmed values
Price survey: government standards and published market prices What guardians actually pay is the co-payment after government support, not the actual cost of service.
| Item | Price | Basis and source | How to read it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly home-benefit limit (2025) | Grade 1 KRW 2,306,400; Grade 2 KRW 2,083,400 | Long-Term Care Committee results, Ministry of Health and Welfare (announced Oct 2024) | Home benefits receive government support only within this limit. |
| Monthly home-benefit limit (2026) | Raised by KRW 18,920 to 247,800 by grade; Grades 1 and 2 by over KRW 200,000 | Long-Term Care Committee results (announced Nov 4, 2025) | Grade 1 can use 3-hour home visits up to 44 times a month; Grade 2 up to 40. |
| Home visit care fee | 3 hours KRW 57,020; 4 hours KRW 70,080 | Caring cost guide (2026, company-published) | A government-set fee (a fixed price per service), so identical across companies. |
| Home visit co-payment | General 15%, middle-income 9%, low-income 6%, basic livelihood 0%. 4 hours, 20 times a month, at 15% is KRW 210,240 a month | Caring cost guide; Yearbook (reductions of 40–60%) | One 4-hour visit at 15% costs about KRW 10,500. |
| Facility benefit (Grade 1, 2025) | KRW 90,450 a day, KRW 2,713,500 a month; 20% co-payment is KRW 542,700 a month | Long-Term Care Committee results (announced Oct 2024) | Non-covered items such as food and haircuts are paid in full by the user (Yearbook). |
| Family care allowance | KRW 233,400 a month (as of Jan 1, 2025) | NHIS Yearbook | Cash paid when a family member provides care equivalent to home visits. |
| Public hospital accompaniment | KRW 5,000 an hour (transport extra), limit 10 times a month and 200 hours a year; free up to 48 times a year at or below 100% of median income | Seoul hospital accompaniment service (2025) | A Seoul example; other regions were not confirmed. |
| Private hospital caregiving posting (example) | KRW 128,192 a day (24 hours) | Caredoc hospital caregiving posting (Dec 2023) | Varies by posting and is not the latest rate. |
Actual service cost is low thanks to government support. A 4-hour home visit costs about KRW 10,000 in co-payment, and public hospital accompaniment KRW 5,000 an hour. So the value of an organizing and consulting service lies in saved time and a result you can decide on, not in the service fee itself.
Source Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2025 long-term care fees and limits (policy news) · Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2026 long-term care limits · Caring home-visit cost guide · Seoul hospital accompaniment service · Caredoc hospital caregiving posting (Dec 2023) |Checked 2026-10-06 |Public material |Actuals confirmed · projections estimated
Comparison of approaches Public desk, caregiver matching, integrated care, direct operation, facility search, silver care
| Category | Approach | Price | Result report |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public desk (NHIS) | Guides application and assessment; offers a simple home-benefit calculator (guidance on comparing and booking after assessment was not found) | Cost of the application and assessment process not found. Statutory co-payment when using benefits: home 15%, facility 20% (actual about 8.7% after reductions) | Not found in public material |
| Carenation | Caregiver matching, home care, hospital accompaniment, etc. | Offers in-app quotes and a caregiving cost calculator; no published amounts found | Not found in public material |
| Caredoc | Integrated care including caregiving | Hospital caregiving example KRW 128,192 a day (24 hours, Dec 2023 posting, not the latest rate) | Not found in public material |
| Caring | Directly operated home care | 4-hour home visit KRW 70,080, 3 hours KRW 57,020 (2026 guide); at 15% co-payment, KRW 10,512 for 4 hours | Not found in public material |
| Facility search services (Korea) | Compares and introduces facility information | Not confirmed | Not confirmed |
| Baskhanbio Silver Care | Intake, classification, connection, result report | Provided on inquiry depending on scope | A five-line report: problem / what we checked / where we connected / cost / next action |
Prices are from each company’s published pages.
Source Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2025 long-term care fees and limits (policy news) · Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2026 long-term care limits · Caring home-visit cost guide · Seoul hospital accompaniment service · Caredoc hospital caregiving posting (Dec 2023) |Checked 2026-10-06 |Public material |Actuals confirmed · projections estimated
04 · JAPAN & OVERSEAS
Confirmed factWhat we take from Japan and overseas
is structure, not a line of business.
This business operates in Korea. Japanese and US material is used only as reference for what happened in markets that faced aging and family caregiving earlier than Korea; it is not a revenue forecast for Korea.
Japan’s 65+ share: a road traveled before Korea
Japan passed 7% in 1970 and 14% in 1994, reached 29.3% in 2024, and is projected at 38.7% in 2070. Korea’s projected 30.9% in 2036 reaches Japan’s 2024 level (about 30%) in the mid-2030s. Only ‘over’ is published for 1970 and 1994, so 7 and 14 are shown.
% of total population
- 1970 7%+ actual
- 1994 14%+ actual
- 2024 29.3% actual
- 2070 38.7% projected
US family caregivers: about 20 million more in ten years
From 43.5 million in 2015 to 53 million in 2020 and 63 million in 2025 (the 2025 figure was checked in the AARP/National Alliance for Caregiving release; the 2015 and 2020 figures were not checked against the original). Published forecasts were not confirmed, so none are shown.
millions
- 2015 43.5M actual
- 2020 53M actual
- 2025 63M actual
Source Japan White Paper on the Aging Society 2025 |Checked 2026-10-06 |Official statistics / laws |Actuals confirmed · projections estimated
Source AARP / National Alliance for Caregiving, Caregiving in the US 2025 press release · AARP Caregiving in the US 2020 press release |Checked 2026-10-06 |Public material |Actuals confirmed · projections estimated
The problem every business starts from
The starting point of senior businesses is not the fact that people are old. Older adults and their families face issues in care, health, housing, relationships, and end of life. But when a problem arises it is hard to know whom to ask, which service to choose, and who will see it through. Services are scattered, and families must compare, book, and confirm on their own. The shared problem is that there is nowhere to entrust an older person’s daily-life problems, so the family must coordinate them.
How the same problem unfolds
- 1
A problem arises
A care, health, housing, relationship, or end-of-life problem appears.
- 2
Not knowing whom to ask
It is hard to know where to inquire.
- 3
Services are scattered
Information and services are split across many places.
- 4
The family does it
Children and family compare, book, and confirm themselves.
- 5
A business handles it
Japan’s seven businesses turned this into search, consultation, visits, connection, welfare checks, insurance, gatherings, and end-of-life services.
- 6
Who pays
Not only the older person, but children, family, facilities, landlords, companies, and insurers.
| Shared problem | How Japanese businesses changed it | Who pays | The opportunity in Korea |
|---|---|---|---|
| Not knowing whom to ask | Search, consultation, comparison, checklists | Children, family | Explain care grades, costs, and facility information so guardians can understand them |
| Hard to use services directly | Visiting beauty care, hospital accompaniment, daily services | Children, facilities, the person | Once a guardian asks, connect to local services |
| Spending a lot of time alone | Welfare checks, relationship connection, hobby gatherings | Children, the older person | Link check results to guardian reports and visiting services |
| Housing risk grows because of age | Power-usage checks, insurance, after-death handling | Landlords, managers, family | Apply separately to parents living alone and to landlord risk management |
| Hard to prepare for the end of life | Funerals, inheritance, belongings, administrative guidance | The person, children, heirs | Connect advance arrangements and inheritance prep to consultation during care |
That is how the Korean service begins Business hypothesis
- 1
Receive the guardian’s problem
Send the parent-care problem all at once.
- 2
Classify the problem
Sort into seven: care grade, cost, hospital accompaniment, visiting service, daily support, housing, end-of-life.
- 3
Connect suitable services
Link the right local providers.
- 4
Deliver the result
Send the result and next actions to the guardian.
Japan’s five major trends Information gaps, loneliness, limited mobility, housing insecurity, end of life
| Trend | Representative cases | Sector | Who pays | Why it works | Application in Korea |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shukatsu (end-of-life preparation) | Kamakura Shinsho | Funerals, inheritance, belongings, administration | The person, children, heirs | Turns vague worry about death into checklists and consultation. | Not an initial focus, but could expand into end-of-life consultation after a parent-care report. |
| Care tech | Zojirushi Mimamori (reference), R65 | Real-estate welfare checks, life signals, housing risk management | Children, landlords, managers | Watches over people with natural life signals such as an electric kettle or power use, with no cameras. | The value is less the device than ‘whom to contact after an anomaly and what was handled’. |
| Emotional connection | Magochannel (reference), Motomate (reference) | Emotional connection, family communication, accompaniment | Children, the older person | Addresses loneliness and self-esteem rather than features. | Photo sharing alone is weak; pairing it with results shared after hospital accompaniment or visits strengthens the reason to pay. |
| Senior matching | Marish (reference), Shumijin Club/Ostance | Remarriage, friends, accompaniment, hobbies | The older person | Makes a dedicated market of situations like age, widowhood, and divorce without hiding them. | In Korea, daily companionship, hobby groups, and guardian-reassuring accompaniment come before dating. |
| Community | Club Tourism, Harumeku | Travel, media, courses, commerce | The older person, advertisers, partners | Gathers people with the same interests to build repeat purchases and a database. | Rather than aiming for revenue directly, use it as an entry point for discovering guardians’ and seniors’ problems. |
(Reference) marks cases not in the seven-business table below. Mimamori has figures in the overseas section; for the other three (Magochannel, Motomate, Marish) no public figures were confirmed, so only names are given.
Source Zojirushi Mimamori guide · Kamakura Shinsho 2026 business report · R65 Real Estate official site and press releases |Checked 2026-10-06 |Company disclosure |Estimated / interpretation
Seven major Japanese businesses Problem, customer, published scale, and Korean adaptation by business (exchange rates are reference values from Oct 6, 2026: JPY 1 ≈ KRW 8.504)
| Business | Sector | Problem it solves | Customer | Published scale | Why it works | Korean adaptation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Club Tourism | Community travel | After retirement, fewer places to go and people to meet | Active seniors | FY ending March 2026 revenue JPY 141.8B (about KRW 12.06T). About 7 million members (2022 material). | Gathers people with shared interests first rather than selling destinations first. | Use as a channel to discover parents’ hobbies, outings, and gathering needs, linked to guardian reports. |
| LIFULL Kaigo | Care facility search | Hard to learn facility information and cost, and hard to compare | Children, family guardians | Runs search and consultation for senior housing and care facilities. LIFULL Group consolidated revenue for FY ending Sept 2025 was JPY 28.1B (about KRW 239B). LIFULL Kaigo alone was not confirmed. | Turns a daunting facility choice into search, consultation, and inquiry. | Plain search exists in Korea. The difference is explaining care grade, co-payment, and post-admission changes in the guardian’s terms. |
| Dignity Charm | Visiting beauty care and daily services | Hard to go out of a facility or home | Facilities, family, seniors | Visits to about 1,500 facilities nationwide; more than 300,000 visits a year (cumulative people counted per visit). | Even non-medical services that raise quality of life create repeat demand. | Change it so a guardian asks once for visiting beauty care, hospital accompaniment, and welfare equipment and receives the result. |
| Harumeku | Senior media and commerce | Women over 50 struggle to find trustworthy information and products | The older person, advertisers, sellers | Magazine ‘Harumeku’ circulation 459,000 (second half of 2025); number one in Japan for eight consecutive half-years. | Content builds trust, and trust leads to purchases. | Content alone is slow. An entry-point content that leads to consultation, visiting services, and guardian reports is needed. |
| Shumijin Club/Ostance | Senior social | Friends dwindle and time alone grows | The older person | Senior community ‘Shumijin Club’ with about 420,000 members (company introduction page). | Does not stop online but leads to offline meetings. | Rather than starting with a large community, check demand for hospital and outing accompaniment and hobbies in small groups. |
| R65 Real Estate | Senior housing | Rental refused because of age | Older tenants, landlords, managers | A model bundling power-usage welfare checks, solitary-death insurance, and after-death handling. A March 2026 company announcement said cumulative welfare-check subscribers were five times the prior March. Only the ratio is published, so absolute subscribers were not confirmed. | Eases landlords’ anxiety with insurance, welfare checks, and after-death handling. | In Korea, approach separately as welfare checks for parents living alone and as rental risk management. |
| Kamakura Shinsho | End-of-life activities, funerals, inheritance | Not knowing where to begin with funerals, inheritance, and belongings | The person, children, heirs | FY ending Jan 2026 revenue JPY 8.335B (about KRW 70.9B), operating profit (profit from the core business) JPY 1.161B (about KRW 9.9B). | Turned a taboo topic into a life service people can search and consult. | Expand into checklists for advance arrangements, belongings, and inheritance that arise naturally during parent care. |
Source Club Tourism corporate information · LIFULL FY Sept 2025 results presentation · Dignity Charm services · Kamakura Shinsho 2026 business report · Harumeku announcement · R65 Real Estate official site and press releases · Ostance company introduction |Checked 2026-10-06 |Company disclosure |Confirmed values
- ·Judging by public descriptions, the seven businesses do not target ‘all older people’. They narrow the problem: people looking for care facilities, people who find it hard to go out, people living alone, people needing after-death arrangements.
- ·In the businesses with confirmed figures and descriptions (LIFULL, Dignity Charm, Kamakura Shinsho), they do not stop at free information but attach real handling such as consultation, booking, visits, insurance, and reports, and charge for it.
- ·In the businesses with confirmed figures and descriptions, they do not look only at the older person; they also place the party that can pay, such as children, facilities, landlords, and insurers. We could not confirm this for Harumeku and Ostance.
Overseas service cases Cariloop, Wellthy, DUOS, and Japanese reference cases
The direction these cases show is not caregiver matching but services that organize a family’s care problem and handle the needed work to completion. Cariloop and Wellthy are paid by companies, so they are not evidence of individual guardians paying.
| Service | Model | Scale / growth | Implication |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cariloop | Employer-provided family caregiving support, coaching, care management | Named to the Inc. 5000 (US fast-growing company ranking) for four consecutive years in 2025, revenue up 112% over two years. Raised USD 20M in a Series C in April 2024 (about KRW 26.8B; company press release, April 9, 2024). | Family caregiving is shifting from a personal matter to an operating risk that employers and organizations pay for. |
| Wellthy | Consulting that handles family care on your behalf, a status screen for the family | Partnered with insurance software company FINEOS to embed family-care consulting inside insurance and benefits systems (no public figures). | Guardian support scales better attached to insurance, corporate benefits, and member-management systems than as a standalone app. |
| DUOS | AI that finds benefits seniors qualify for and helps them apply | Raised USD 130M in growth investment led by FTV Capital in 2025 (about KRW 174.5B). | The investment case is a structure that carries unfinished tasks through to completion, not just information. |
| Japanese reference case | Key published scale | Application in Korea |
|---|---|---|
| Zojirushi Mimamori | Welfare checks by life signals. More than 25 years of operation, about 15,000 cumulative subscribers, JPY 3,300 a month (about KRW 28,000). | Convert life signals into guardian reports and links to visiting services |
| Koreisha (高齢社) | A company that registers experienced seniors and connects them to work. FY2025 revenue JPY 851.01M (about KRW 7.2B), 1,233 registered staff (April 2026; 396 employed). | Use former care-home administrators, social workers, and clerks as a guardian consultation team |
Source Cariloop growth record · Cariloop Series C announcement (company press release) · Wellthy × FINEOS · DUOS growth investment announcement |Checked 2026-10-06 |Company disclosure |Confirmed values
Won conversions are reference values at the October 6, 2026 rates (JPY 1 ≈ KRW 8.504, USD 1 ≈ KRW 1,342).
05 · MONEY FLOW
Business hypothesisSeen as money flow,
the revenue and cost structures
We grouped Japanese and Korean cases into six flows. Whether the user and the payer are the same largely shapes a business model. (An interpretation based on public sources.)
Advertising and search
LIFULL Care Facility Service
- User
- Users (free)
- Payer
- Facilities (monthly listing fee)
- Recipient
- Platform
- Main costs
- Advertising, content, sales staff
Brokerage and referral
Kamakura Shinsho · Carenation (caregiver matching)
- User
- Guardians and bereaved families (free, or included in the transaction)
- Payer
- Providers and caregivers (success fee)
- Recipient
- Platform
- Main costs
- Marketing, call-center staff, dispute handling
Facility operation
Charm Care Corporation · Caring
- User
- Residents and recipients
- Payer
- Insurer benefits + co-payment
- Recipient
- Operating company
- Main costs
- Labor (largest), facilities and centers
Device and welfare-check subscription
Zojirushi Mimamori Hotline
- User
- Guardian (contract holder)
- Payer
- Guardian (monthly fee)
- Recipient
- Manufacturer
- Main costs
- Devices, communications, customer support
Content and community
Harumeku · Club Tourism
- User
- Members (subscribers)
- Payer
- Members (subscriptions, products, events)
- Recipient
- Publisher and travel agency
- Main costs
- Content, inventory, catalog mailing
Institutional partnership
SKT and Clova Care Call · local-government programs
- User
- Users (free)
- Payer
- Local governments and foundations (program budgets)
- Recipient
- Telecom and monitoring organizations
- Main costs
- System operation, on-site checking staff
06 · BUSINESS MODEL LINES
Business hypothesisFive components of the
silver-care business model
Customer, payer, deliverable, revenue point, and repeatability are compared in the same format. We are reviewing a start around the guardian report, connecting the rest step by step within what is confirmed.
| Model | Customer | Payer | Core value | Where revenue arises | Repeatability | Key cautions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guardian report | Guardians deciding a parent’s care | Guardian | Organized options and a basis for judgment | A fee per case when the report is delivered | Used again when events occur | Accuracy, scope of responsibility, difference from free public lookup |
| Action connection and brokerage | Families needing accompaniment or daily support | Guardian (individual) or benefits + co-payment | Connection to vetted providers | A transaction fee when the service is completed | Repeats for users with regular visits | Provider quality, claims and accident liability, competition with low-priced public services |
| Institutional partnership | Users of hospitals, care facilities, local governments, and companies | Institutions, local governments, foundations | Reduces the institution’s workload | At agreement or operating-contract signing | Per contract renewal | Decision-maker differs from user; not tied to individual payment |
| Content and community entry | Seniors and guardian members | Members themselves, companies (advertising) | Information, interaction, product recommendation | Subscriptions, products, courses, advertising | Many repeat touchpoints | Operating cost comes first and the link to payment may be unclear |
| Monthly guardian management | Guardians who need repeated checks | Guardian (monthly subscription) | Records of condition, schedule, and cost, and next actions | Monthly subscription | High | Free substitutes, cancellation, securing information each month |
Price and scope of each model are not fixed and are adjusted step by step. Scope and fees will be set during business review; please contact us for the current plan.
07 · CASE STRUCTURES
Needs further verificationBusiness structures by case
For each case we examined where and how money moves across customer, payer, supplier, acquisition, transaction point, revenue source, cost, operation, repeat, and risk. The tables below summarize the key items.
Nine Japanese cases Advertising and search, facility operation, device subscription, brokerage and referral, content and community
| Case | Type | Customer · payer | Where revenue arises | Repeat structure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LIFULL Care Facility Service | Advertising and search | Users searching for care facilities and senior housing (free) · facility operators who list (monthly flat fee) | Facilities’ monthly flat listing fee; amount given on inquiry and not shown on the official page | Facilities renew listings monthly (one-month contracts) |
| Charm Care Corporation | Facility operation | Residents needing care (average age 88) and family · insurance care-fee schedule + resident co-payment | Monthly care fees and charges after move-in; 105 homes and 7,155 rooms at end of FY June 2025 | Residents stay (average occupancy 89.3%, Q3 of FY June 2026) |
| Club Tourism | Content and community | Members of the member organization (about 7 million, Nov 2020) · members (travel, paid courses) and companies (advertising, product planning) | Travel sales, paid courses and events, advertising opportunities for companies | Repeat travel purchases, member retention, community activity |
| R65 | Brokerage and referral | People aged 65+ seeking housing · fee split among tenants, landlords, and guarantors is undisclosed | Rental brokerage, guarantor partnership, sale of power-data welfare-check service | Welfare checks may be used monthly |
| Kamakura Shinsho | Brokerage and referral | Bereaved families or people planning ahead who need funeral, grave, inheritance, or care consultation (consultation free) · partner businesses | At referral → contract (referrals, contracts, and unit prices disclosed) | Cross-use across services (200,000 a year; more than about 2.7 million referral records cumulatively) |
| Zojirushi Mimamori Hotline | Device and welfare-check subscription | Parents using the kettle and the family watching over them · the guardian who applies | JPY 5,500 initial + JPY 3,300 a month (device rental, communications, notifications included) | Monthly flat fee continues; cancellation fee within six months |
| AgeWell Japan (Motomate) | Content and community | Older adults needing help with smartphones, outings, paperwork · share of individuals vs. companies and local governments undisclosed | Individual services, a digital partner for senior business owners, multigenerational space memberships and events | Regular-visit structure |
| Silver Human Resources Center | Brokerage and referral | Older members who want to work, and households, companies, local governments that commission work · client pays member allocation and materials plus an office fee | At contract or dispatch (Kawasaki City 2007: 12% for contract work, 20% for dispatch as office fee) | Regular work from the same client |
| Harumeku | Content and community | Women aged 50+ · subscribers | JPY 6,960 annual prepaid subscription → expands into mail-order catalog, events, courses, travel | Annual prepayment brings cash first, and reader requests lead to mail-order and events |
Source Club Tourism corporate information · LIFULL FY Sept 2025 results presentation · Dignity Charm services · Kamakura Shinsho 2026 business report · Harumeku announcement · R65 Real Estate official site and press releases · Ostance company introduction |Checked 2026-10-06 |Company disclosure |Confirmed values
Eight Korean business types Grouped by model type, not by company list
| Type | Cases | Customer | Payer | Where revenue arises | Repeat structure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Caregiver matching | Carenation · Caredoc (caregiver matching) | Guardians of hospital inpatients | Guardian (a family split-payment feature is introduced) | Matching fee when a caregiving job is confirmed and paid (official rate card not confirmed) | Repeats during hospitalization, ends at discharge |
| 2. Home visit and direct long-term care operation | Caring | Long-term care recipients and families | NHIS (benefits) and co-payment | Long-term care contract and monthly benefit claims | Monthly claims repeat and last through the benefit period |
| 3. Care-facility search and consultation | Tto Hana-ui Gajok · Senior Talktalk · Caredoc facility service | Guardians looking at care homes, hospitals, housing | Undisclosed whether free for users or paid by facilities | Undisclosed | Admission is event-based so repeat is weak; reused when changing facilities |
| 4. Hospital accompaniment and daily support | Seoul accompaniment · private accompaniment firms · long-term care hospital-accompaniment pilot | Older adults who cannot go to hospital alone, and guardians living far away | Public: local-government funds + partial user payment; private: guardian or user | When the service is completed (public: KRW 5,000 an hour; pilot reportedly capped at KRW 500,000 a year per person) | Repeats for patients with regular visits |
| 5. Senior community, hobbies, travel | Sinol · Onyu | People in their 50s–70s | Share of individual payment and partner payment undisclosed | Whether payment occurs through classes, travel, or memberships is undisclosed | Repeat visits through regular classes and events |
| 6. Senior media and commerce | Domestic comparison for Japan’s Harumeku | — | — | No domestic comparison case was confirmed in this survey | — |
| 7. Welfare checks and care tech | SKT Nugu Care Call · Clova Care Call · local-government AI welfare checks | Older adults living alone and the local governments and welfare agencies that manage them | Local-government budgets or foundation support (often free for users) | At agreement or program contract between local government and operator; individuals do not pay | Per contract renewal |
| 8. Funerals, inheritance, belongings | Prepaid funeral plans · belongings cleanup · legal and tax referral | People and families preparing for funerals | Members prepay monthly, or the bereaved pay when an event occurs | At sign-up (prepayment begins) and when the funeral service is delivered | Event-based; may repeat through cross-selling within a family |
Source Caredoc business introduction · Caring company introduction |Checked 2026-10-06 |Company disclosure |Confirmed values
How to read this material
Fact
Content confirmed from public sources. Figures are tagged by nature, such as official source confirmed, secondary source confirmed, or company statement.
Interpretation
Analysis based on facts; not definitive.
Undisclosed or unconfirmed
What could not be confirmed is not filled in and is left as ‘undisclosed’ or ‘not confirmed’.
Yen amounts are converted at the European Central Bank reference rate of October 9, 2026 (JPY 1 = KRW 8.4768), for reference. The full source list is on the Sources page.
More detail
How the service works · business model
Business inquiry Roles of guardian, operator, providers, and public desk, and fee items
Operations and responsibilityProcess flow, what we do and do not do, privacy, medical, brokering, and quality responsibility
Sources and referencesGovernment statistics and laws, and Japanese, overseas, and domestic case sources
Partners & informationAreas needing partners, and frequently asked questions