Article at a Glance

The alarm app “Alarmy,” developed by the Korean startup Delightroom, ranked No. 1 in the Apple App Store across 97 countries with its “mission alarm” feature. Since its launch in 2012, the company has recorded profits every year. Behind its remarkable growth with a single alarm app was a decision-making approach that prioritized the product above all and placed users at the center. Delightroom declined external investment offers to stay focused on creating the best possible product. It also refused to add full-screen in-app advertisements that could have more than doubled its revenue, as such ads might degrade product quality. In addition, employees read the original texts of the Voice of Customer (VOC) feedback from around the world every week to improve the service.

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“55 + 24 = ?”

There is an alarm that won’t stop ringing unless you solve a math problem. Even if you turn your phone off and back on to escape the sound, the alarm resumes without fail. The only way to stop it is by getting the correct answer. This app—nicknamed the “Devil’s Alarm” for its persistence until the mission is completed—was developed by the Korean startup Delightroom and is called “Alarmy.”

Alarmy wakes up users in more than 170 countries with its signature “mission alarm.” The types of missions are diverse: math problems to stimulate the brain, memory games, sentence copying, and physical missions such as walking, doing squats, shaking the phone, or taking photos and scanning QR or barcodes. Users can select their preferred mission type and difficulty level from eight available options. The most popular mission is the math challenge, used by 58% of mission alarm users. They can choose between one and ninety-nine problems to ensure they wake up fully and adjust the level of difficulty, which ranges from single-digit addition problems to mixed operations such as “(162 × 87) + 1878,” spread across six levels in total.

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