Type of business Private company Area served Worldwide | Founded Zurich, Switzerland Created by Yago Veith | |
Type of site Health promotion, mhealth, Social Networking Available in 10 languages including: American English, German, Dutch, Portuguese, French, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Czech | ||
dacadoo (formerly QUENTIQ AG) is a Zurich based company that combines mobile technologies, social networking, gamification and big data analytics with the aim of helping users improve their health and well-being.
Contents
History and background
dacadoo is based in Zurich, Switzerland and was founded as QUENTIQ AG in 2010 (and renamed to dacadoo ag in January 2012) with offices in Zurich, Switzerland and Boston, USA. The company is privately funded. The dacadoo platform went live with its first generation (version 1.x) in 3 languages in December 2011 with its online health and wellbeing platform, and its related application to track activity for iOS devices, followed by similar applications for Android devices in May 2012 and BlackBerry devices in June 2012 (development was stopped end of 2013). In January 2013 dacadoo launched its second generation platform (version 2.x) in 6 languages and in October 2015 its third and fully mobile third generation (version 3.x) in 11 languages, which followed a pure “mobile first” approach (both on mobile apps and web application). The company focuses exclusively on a B2B2C go-to-market approach and has signed agreements with customers (insurers, corporate wellness vendors, etc.) who launched the dacadoo platform in an own branded version to their end users in various countries.
The company presupposes its health platform execution on the premise that sedentary lifestyles have increased the proportion of people who are overweight, have diabetes or suffer heart failure in our society thus pressuring further the already stressed healthcare budgets of most developed countries. One such study quoted is the clinical data published in the Lancet in 2012 which demonstrates that insufficient activity has nearly the same effect on life expectancy as smoking. With these type of studies as their reference dacadoo has been, according to their website and press releases, developing a so-called lifestyle navigation platform that calculates a person's Health Score. The score, a number from 1 to 1000, represents a person’s health status from poor to excellent and aims to represent a directional relative indicator of a user's current health and wellbeing status in real-time. According to the company's website, the dacadoo health score is based on three pillars:
According to their statement, many of the company's initiatives aim to focus on active health promotion (prevention) and healthier lifestyle to tackle the problems before they become chronic – in this instance referencing a report on global life sciences published by Ernst & Young in 2012 which recognizes that changing behavioral patterns represented the single biggest opportunity to improve an individual’s health outcome.
The company's business model is based on the premise that the combination of smartphone technology, social networking, motivation techniques from the gaming industry (gamification), big data analytics and a reward system, have the power to facilitate lifestyle behavior change in individuals. As a result, the company trademarked the dacadoo Health Score Platform based on these principles. The company has since launch issued a disclaimer that the so-called dacadoo Health Score is not a medical diagnostic tool but a lifestyle product and therefore does not substitute the diagnosis of a medical professional.
Platform and functionality
The digital and mobile health & wellbeing platform can be accessed by web browser on the computer or by a mobile wireless device such as a smartphone or tablet, or via the native mobile apps for iPhone and Android smartphones. The platform calculates a real-time Health Score for each user based on 3 key areas: Lifestyle (exercise, nutrition, stress and sleep), Body (biometric measures), and Feelings (mental well-being), and motivates users through automated lifestyle coaching, gamification, social features and a reward system.
The platform is device and application agnostic and supports third party devices and apps from companies such as Fitbit, Jawbone (company), Garmin and Polar, Suunto, TomTom, Withings (Nokia), Runkeeper, Endomondo (UnderArmour), Moves (Facebook), Strava, etc. and it’s HealthKit enabled for iPhone users.
In addition to offer the connection to the various tracking devices and apps, dacadoo offers an own tracker that can track more than 115 different indoor and outdoor fitness activities.
Similar products
Similar products include
Awards and nominations
2016
Winner of the Frost & Sullivan Global Wellness Analytics Visionary Innovation Leadership Award 2016., winner of the Red Herring Global Top 100 Award, Winner of the Digital Health Global 100 by the Journal of mHealth, winner of the BeWell Challenges HITS Award by Merck, and winner of the BIG Innovation Award 2016 by the Business Intelligence Group in the USA
2015
dacadoo won silver at the EU SME eHealth Competition 2015 in the Champions category in Riga. in May 15 dacadoo was elected Top 50 startups at TiECon 2015 in the USA. Finalist at the Digital Health Award of the Digital Innovation in Healthcare Conference of Munich Network (Europe).
2014
In 2014 dacadoo wins Bronze in the category “Innovation" at the Best of Swiss Web Awards 2014 in Zurich. dacadoo is one of the winners of the Red Herring Top 100 Europe Award 2014 in Amsterdam. In November 2014 dacadoo wins Bronze in category Lifestyle at the Best of Swiss App Award 2014.
2013
In Lucerne, Switzerland the dacadoo platform won the Swiss ICT Award 2013 Public Award. In Köln, Germany, dacadoo won the Health Media Award 2013.
2012
The dacadoo tracker app was on the short list of the inaugural Swiss App Awards 2012 in Zurich. Quentiq was nominated in the 2012 Best of Swiss Web Awards. The Quentiq platform won bronze, in the category "Technology" at the "Best of Swiss Web Awards 2012" in Zurich, was selected as the winner by the judges. In Munich at the "Health Media Award 2012″ the Quentiq platform won the first place award in the category "International Communication" and also for the Special category: “International Cooperation”.
Media coverage
The company has received media coverage in print, online and TV mostly in the German speaking part of Europe (Switzerland, Germany and Austria). Swiss German print media includes Blick, SonntagsBlick magazine, SonntagsZeitung weekly newspaper, and 20 Minuten, und BILANZ Magazine, and NZZ am Sonntag. Swiss French print media includes newspaper Le Temps. Also covered by Swiss television's. "cash TV" and "10vor10" and "Einstein". Also covered by the DRS 2 the second Swiss German radio station from Schweizer Radio DRS and the French radio in Switzerland RTS.
In Germany, media coverage includes Die Welt, Internet World Business. and Süddeutsche Zeitung., Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) and German TV ZDFinfo, and on German public TV Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen Das Erste, Also specific start-up news websites such as startupticker.ch, startwerk.ch, ictk.ch, Newly Swissed, gruenderszene.de, and netzwoche. dacadoo has been mentioned in a three-sided report in the taz Die Tageszeitung,
English speaking media coverage include articles in the Journal of mHealth, The Economist, and the Wall Street Journal. Also published in mHealthNews, mHealthSpot, SeekingAlpha, theinquirer and mobihealthnews.
Danish newspapers have also written about the company due to founding entrepreneur Peter Ohnemus's Danish background. These include: Dagbladet Børsen and Berlingske Tidende.
Portuguese "Brazilian" speaking media coverage includes articles in Saber Viver, Brazil’s EXAME magazine, and Impressão Digital.
Criticism
To date, there isn’t yet any prospective clinical outcome study on behavioral change that shows objectively, that the dacadoo health score platform is effective as behavioral change and well-being platform.