What It Is
SantaDays is your own advent tree that friends fill one slot a day. Each day a friend leaves a message through your tree link, one slot fills, and on the 25th of every month at midnight (Korea time) you open everything at once. The brand line is "Santa comes every month". The idea is to share the excitement of waiting for Christmas every month, not once a year.
The Problem
Even when you feel grateful, it is often hard to find a reason to say so. Outside birthdays and the end of the year, a short word of encouragement can feel awkward. On the receiving side, such words arrive scattered and are soon forgotten.
SantaDays creates a monthly reason to leave a friend a few words and gives the receiver a day to open a month's worth of messages together. Senders only need to open the link, and receivers wait for opening day while watching the tree fill up instead of reading as messages arrive.
Who It Is For
- People who want to keep in touch with friends: friends, partners and family who want to trade a few light words
- Groups that cheer each other on: school friends or clubs sharing their trees and leaving messages
- People who love waiting for a letter: people who want messages every month, not only on birthdays or at year's end
Core Flow
- Make your tree: sign in with a Google account and create your own address.
- Share it with friends: send your tree link, and friends leave a message right away without signing in.
- Fill one slot a day: from the 1st to the 24th, every day you receive a message fills one slot. Several messages on the same day still count as one.
- Open on the 25th: from midnight on the 25th, Korea time, only you can read your messages. The result also arrives by email.
- Get the completion gift: if all 24 slots are filled, you receive that month's mobile coupon by text message between the 25th and the end of the month. On the 1st of the next month the tree empties and a new round begins.
Key Features
- Your tree and share address: a personal page where friends come to leave messages.
- Messages without signing in: a writing screen a friend can use the moment they open the link.
- Letters that open together: a received-messages screen that holds messages until opening day.
- Scenery that changes with the seasons: the tree and background follow the season, and Christmas decorations grow as December nears. After opening, you can make a share card.
- Santa tracker: follow Santa on a map as he reaches each city at midnight local time on Christmas. His arrival in Seoul matches the moment the trees open.
- Five languages: Korean, English, Japanese, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese.
Product Decisions
- Steady over many: slots fill by the days you received a message, not by message count. Attention spread across many days grows the tree, not one friend writing a lot in one day.
- Contents only for the receiver: visitors see only the slots and how many messages have arrived. Message contents and senders are never shown.
- Everyone opens at the same moment: the writing period and opening time are fixed to Korea time, so friends can share the excitement on the same day.
- No barrier for writers: friends leaving a message never need to sign up. Tapping the link in KakaoTalk opens the writing card directly.
- Unkind words still fill a slot: abusive messages still count, but at opening the offending words are masked or the message is hidden. That protects the tree owner while keeping the slot rule simple.
- No made-up numbers: even the Santa tracker shows no invented figures such as gift counts or viewer numbers. The only numbers on screen are times and time remaining.
Revenue Model
- Completion gift: the mobile coupon for members who fill all 24 slots is free. Each round sets the item and a first-come quantity, paid from the operating budget. It is currently for members in Korea.
- Credit gifts: features to receive a coupon with credits despite empty slots, or to send a gift to a friend, are ready. They open once the coupon supplier's conditions for paid sales are confirmed.
Next Hypotheses
- How many friends' messages a single shared tree link leads to.
- Whether people who experienced opening day make a tree again the next month.
- Whether the completion gift motivates people to fill all 24 slots.