How was Dailyshot able to become Korea's largest liquor platform with cloud-based scalability?
Dailyshot
Dailyshot is Korea's leading online liquor platform. Despite the massive size of the Korean liquor market at 29 trillion won annually, online penetration is less than 1%. In the first half of 2020, revisions to liquor regulations made smart ordering of liquor possible. Since then, Dailyshot has been providing a liquor smart order service through its app, allowing users to purchase premium liquor at reasonable prices and pick it up at nearby partner stores.
Dailyshot offers convenient liquor services through its partner service, where users can pick up liquor from general restaurants or cafes rather than specialized liquor stores; its store service, which connects customers with liquor shops and over 8,600 CU convenience stores nationwide; and its delivery service, which allows customers to receive traditional Korean liquors and imported liquors via parcel delivery.
As of May 2024, Dailyshot has achieved monthly transactions of 4.8 billion won, 700,000 monthly active users, 1.6 million cumulative app installations, and partnerships with over 3,000 stores. In just three years since its launch, it has established itself as Korea's largest liquor platform.
Name Dailyshot
Area Liquor playform
Estab. March, 2018
Site https://dailyshot.co
Challenges in Infrastructure Management Due to Service Growth
Challenges Before Implementation
Q. What were the challenges before meeting SmileShark?
A. Dailyshot was experiencing difficulties in infrastructure expansion due to the rapid growth of its service. As a startup, it was challenging to hire team members dedicated to managing infrastructure. Especially as service growth accelerated in 2021, the demand for infrastructure maintenance increased, but the existing development team did not have sufficient resources to respond to this.
As traffic and customer inflow increased dramatically, there was a lack of technical resources and expertise needed for effective management. Additionally, we needed a channel to receive the necessary infrastructure knowledge and technical support as our service grew. In this situation, the Dailyshot development team sought collaboration with SmileShark, which could provide AWS technical support to solve these two issues: infrastructure knowledge and technical support.
Reasons for Choosing SmileShark
Q. So, why did you choose SmileShark?
A. There were two reasons why Dailyshot chose SmileShark.
The first reason was how the manager in charge of the contract treated us. While exploring how SmileShark and Dailyshot could collaborate, communication went beyond simple contract signing to understand each other's needs. At the time of implementation, Dailyshot considered smooth communication as the most important factor. We believed that if smooth communication was achieved, the expected technical support would also be provided normally.
The second reason was that SmileShark is also a startup like us. We thought that the collaborative process where both companies could grow together would become a great asset in the future.
CloudFront Cost Optimization and System Stability Improvement
Improved Service Stability and Performance
Q. Were there any improvements after SmileShark became Dailyshot’s partner?
A. There were several improvements after partnering with SmileShark. First, we were able to receive support for infrastructure technical knowledge that the Dailyshot development team did not possess, which contributed to improving the stability and performance of the service.
Also, we were able to reduce cloud infrastructure costs by more than 40% through cost savings and infrastructure optimization via technical support. The collaboration with SmileShark significantly eased Dailyshot's technical and financial burdens.
Q. How was the technical support through SmileShark?
A. The technical support through SmileShark was very fast and efficient. We were able to effectively solve problems through detailed explanations and sharing of reference documents. By addressing issues with various possibilities open, we were able to derive accurate problem definitions and solutions.It was impressive that they didn't simply pass over inquiries when additional materials were needed, but instead meticulously sought clarification.
Also, during the service collaboration process with partners, there were aspects that we couldn't verify on our own in the new configuration process, and we needed technical feedback from professional engineers. We were able to get quick answers through SmileShark's support center engineers.
This support was a great help for Dailyshot to accurately define and solve infrastructure problems.
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- Heejae Choi, Dailyshot CTO |
AWS Cost and Operation Optimization
Q. You mentioned CloudFront discounts earlier. Did you see effects on cost savings as well?
A. Yes, we saw significant effects on cost savings through the CloudFront cost discount policy. In particular, the cost of image asset transfer was reduced by more than 70%. This greatly helped in managing our company's overall infrastructure costs and allowed us to reinvest the budget in other important development areas.
Also, there were points where we might have missed or found it harder to save more costs if we had proceeded without a partner. Through SmileShark's consulting, we were able to clearly identify where we could save costs and what actions we should avoid.
Continuous Innovation and Strengthening Partnership
Q. Were there any other good points besides technical support?
A. The response of the manager in charge was good. In particular, I felt that they treated Dailyshot not simply as a client to whom they should provide services, but as a companion growing together. It felt good to think about problems together and discuss future directions.
Q. Could you please give a word of advice that might help those considering choosing SmileShark?
A. Even for teams or companies that provide services through technology, I believe that technology cannot take precedence over business. However, there comes an ironic point when more resources are needed for technology in order to do business well. Of course, solving problems on your own is a good way to grow the team or gain experience, but there's a risk of missing both business and technology at the same time if you're not careful. To control this risk, I recommend choosing SmileShark as a strategy to focus more on business.
I would recommend SmileShark to:
Companies that find it burdensome to create a specialized infrastructure development team or hire dedicated developers
Teams expecting collaboration rather than just using a solution
Teams that value smooth communication
Dailyshot’s future plan
Dailyshot aims to be more than just a platform for purchasing liquor; we want to be a company that influences all markets related to liquor.
We plan to directly import and launch various products that customers want and need in Korea, collaborate with traditional breweries to produce and distribute new alcoholic beverages, and expand our business into global services by entering overseas pickup services and duty-free businesses.
In this process, we aim to create a virtuous cycle where importers, liquor wholesalers, and affiliated stores that work with Dailyshot all grow together. We want to contribute to the formation of a healthy liquor market while providing a wide variety of alcoholic beverages to the customers.
Detailed Services applied to Dailyshot
Dailyshot Architecture
Introduced SmileShark Services
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