WOOWACON 2023(우아한테크콘퍼런스 2023) is a technology conference organised by Woowa Brothers, operators of Baedal Minjok (BAEMIN). This year’s WOOWACON, now in its fourth edition, was themed ‘BAEDAL SCIENCE: All the technology you need for a single delivery’. BAEDAL means delivery in Korean. The term ‘delivery science’ reflects the complexity of the technologies involved in handling a single delivery and also reflects the purpose of WOOWACON, which is to share the details of the various technologies currently in use.

Held offline for the first time, the event attracted more than 20,000 pre-registered attendees, of which 1,800 were selected by lottery.

In his opening speech, Lee Kuk-hwan, CEO of Woowas Brothers, said: “We are investing heavily in technology to streamline the way we work, improve the usability of our services and maximise the customer experience. We use technology to match drivers with the best deliveries through sophisticated AI dispatching technology, and to increase convenience and satisfaction for customers, owners and drivers through personalised AI recommendations. “We try to share our successes and failures, and provide practical help to those facing similar challenges.”

Song Jaeha, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), then looked at the technologies that will be covered in various sessions at WOOWACON 2023. “Skills, knowledge and experience are strengthened and deepened through sharing,” said Song, “and WOOWACON, as a place for knowledge sharing, also contributes greatly to the growth of Woowa Bros. members.”

Lee Kiho, Chief Product Officer (CPO), gave a keynote speech on “Baedal Minjok (BAEMIN) Product Concerns and Changes in 2023”, in which he introduced the concerns of the product organisation in creating services and the various technologies behind the functions of the BAEMIN app.

“With more than 8,000 orders per minute, it’s not easy to ensure high delivery quality for every order,” Lee said. “We use machine learning and AI to analyse more than 70 factors, including the distance between the user and the store, cooking time, number of available drivers and weather, to predict the exact delivery time.”

“To improve the navigation of over 300,000 restaurants and to search 10,000 products in BAEMIN’s online supermarket B-mart, we will also continue to develop various features to aid navigation, such as making personalised recommendations based on user data such as order history and introducing contextual menu recommendations using GPT technology.”

In his congratulatory remarks, Yun-Kyu Park, Vice Minister, Ministry of Science and ICT, said, “As a leading delivery technology platform, we hope to share Woowa Bros.’ knowledge and vivid field experience, as well as the positive energy of the entire ecosystem.

Following this, WOOWACON 2023 featured a total of 53 individual sessions across 14 areas, including backend, frontend, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), data, robotics, security and design. A total of 83 Woowa Bros. employees, with a wealth of experience and expertise in their respective fields, served as presenters. Dilli, an indoor and outdoor autonomous delivery robot developed by Woowa Bros. that recently started delivery service in the Teheran-ro area of Gangnam-gu, Seoul, was on display at the event.

Lee Kuk-hwan, CEO of Woowa Bros. said, “It was a meaningful opportunity to reflect on BAEMIN’s journey from food delivery to quick commerce, which has become a national platform used by about 20 million people, with technology at its core.” “We hope that Woowa Bros.’ culture of sharing technology will spread widely, and we will continue to strive to become a platform that creates customer satisfaction through BAEDAL SCIENCE.”