"We discovered the niche market of swimming care, created it as a new category, and are leading the market."
Gwak Hyo-seop, head of Makemakemake, is not speaking from simple confidence but from results based on rapid sales growth and market foothold. Makemakemake is a K-beauty tech startup that developed a shampoo dedicated to swimming pools, founded by Gwak in May 2024. After leading new businesses and retail strategy for 12 years at a major commerce platform, Gwak launched the company based on on-site experience.
What caught Gwak's attention was the niche of "swimming." Gwak said, "K-beauty is already fiercely competitive, making differentiation difficult," and noted, "Swimming once had a strong image of rehabilitation or a senior sport, but recently it has been spreading quickly as a wellness trend, especially among people in their 20s and 30s." Gwak added, "As it has also been included in the essential curriculum for elementary school students, the demand base is steadily expanding," and said, "Judging that the market has ample growth potential, we focused on a swimming-specialized care brand."
The problem was clear. Swimming pool water contains "chloramine," a compound of chlorine and human secretions, and ordinary shampoo has difficulty removing it properly. Makemakemake solved this with technology. Through its first brand, "SOOO," it introduced a shampoo dedicated to swimming and even added a function to alleviate hair loss. Related technology has been filed for patents at home and abroad.
Gwak said, "There were no products on the market that could properly manage scalp and hair damage after swimming," and explained, "SOOO Shampoo applies our in-house adsorption and ion-exchange-based technology to remove up to 96% of chloramine."
The product quickly gained a foothold in the market. At launch in Oct. 2024, monthly sales were about 5 million won, but by Mar. of this year, monthly sales had grown about 60 times to 3 billion won. Incorporating consumer feedback after launch and improving the product five times to raise completeness proved effective. Last year, Makemakemake's total company sales reached 5 billion won.
Gwak is currently strengthening overseas business. After receiving U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, SOOO Shampoo officially launched on Amazon. At Cosmoprof Asia in Hong Kong last year, it also received the grand prize in the hair care institutional sector. This led to exports to Brazil, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Malaysia. Gwak said, "It is unusual for a brand less than a year after launch to win the grand prize at a global award," adding, "Since then, interest from overseas buyers has surged."
Makemakemake is preparing to expand beyond swimming pools into the "water-stress care" market. It is developing products that solve problems arising in various water environments, such as minerals in hard water, heavy metals from aging pipes, and salinity in seawater. It also plans to introduce a SOOO brand line of anti-aging beauty skincare using Codium fragile, a marine byproduct from Jeju Island.
Gwak said, "We started at swimming pools, but we will ultimately expand into a brand that manages all problems caused by water," and added, "In the long term, we will grow into a global beauty brand based on longevity." Gwak also emphasized, "We will achieve 100 billion won in sales in 2030."