Exploring Wellness Sector, Indosat Ooredoo Launches IMove Application

Telecommunications company Indosat Ooredoo launched its new initiative IMove, a platform that offers a healthy lifestyle experience with the concept of gamification with prizes. This launch is also Indosat Ooredoo's effort to support the Government in realizing Healthy Indonesia 2025.

According to data WHO, the number of overweight adults in Indonesia has more than doubled over the past two decades. Childhood obesity is also on the rise, with one in five primary school-age children and one in seven adolescents in Indonesia being overweight or obese, according to the 2018 national Basic Health Research Survey.

In this report, low physical activity is also cited as the fourth leading cause of death. Life in a big city is one that affects an unhealthy lifestyle with relatively easy access to processed foods and a lack of movement through the use of motorized transportation and increased use of screens for work, education and recreation.

IMove offers a holistic approach to optimal health, with a focus on movement, nutrition, and emotional health. Users can take on various gamification challenges to exercise more, lose weight, eat healthier, and become a healthier person.

SVP-Head of Digital Services Indosat Ooredoo, Sudheer Chawla said, “A healthy lifestyle is very important, especially during this pandemic. Therefore, we launched IMove to encourage people to live a healthier lifestyle with the concept of gamification. Through IMove, we offer goal-setting platform, habit tracker, and community online, help users achieve their individual goals, stay committed, and earn rewards. We hope that our customers will choose IMove as their first choice to adopt a healthier and more active lifestyle.”

The platform has three main features: Coaches, Social Wall, and Rewards. In the Coaches feature, users can enjoy informative insights, such as meal plans and recipes, fitness routines and workouts, and healthy lifestyle tips from certified professional coaches. Through the Social Wall, users can share their progress to support each other and interact. Meanwhile, users can collect trophies for each activity and perform redeem di store with the Rewards feature.

In addition, there is a Leaderboard of Step Challenge feature, IMove users can compare their progress with other participants. This platform offers free to pro challenges with subscriptions starting from IDR 1.000/day. This application is available on Google Play Store and App Store.

Platform wellness in Indonesia

The Covid-19 pandemic has attacked one thing that some people don't take seriously, namely physical health. Many people are now more concerned with their health and are starting to want to set aside money to maintain fitness. However, the restriction of physical interaction forced them to run workout or exercise at home. This opens up opportunities for the wellness market in the country.

In Report DSResearch with FITCO entitled "Understanding the Wellness Market in Indonesia", the industrial market share wellness is very promising. Research results from the Global Wellness Institute (GWI) in 2017 predict this industry is worth $4,2 trillion globally with growth reaching 6,4% per year.

In Indonesia alone, several platforms that focus on providing healthy lifestyle solutions include: Doogether and FITCO. In addition to fitness solutions, to strengthen its position as a wellness tech startup with a holistic ecosystem, FITCO has also developed several sub-vertical businesses, such as healthy food and marketplace for sports equipment.

In terms of telecommunications companies, IMove is not the only social health initiative supported by telecom operators. Previously, Telkomsel has also explored the realm of digital health services with the Fita application. Not much exploration has been done on this platform, only sports programs, exercise tutorials, and healthy food recipe tutorials are available.