South Korean babysitter app seeks to ease guilt among mothers torn between child and career

A mobile phone shows Momsitter app at the company’s office in Seoul, South Korea. Momsitter, an online platform that matches families with potential babysitters, has gained more than a million users since it launched six years ago. — Bloomberg

Chung Jeeyea overheard a colleague sobbing in a bathroom, unable to find someone on the phone to pick up her sick child from school. It was a moment she, too, would experience as a mom and one that led her to quit her job and start a service to help parents faced with the same quandary.

Six years later Momsitter, an online platform that matches families with potential babysitters, has gained more than one million users. Chung tapped into South Koreans’ tech savvy to respond to a culture that frowns upon working mothers.