Observer
Text/Chen Yongwei
Recently, Truecaller, a world-renowned communications service platform, announced that it will reach a cooperation with Indian elderly application Khyaal to help the elderly improve their anti-fraud capabilities. According to the cooperation plan, Khyaal members will enjoy the TruecallerPremium half-price subscription discount, and can also participate in online and offline activities such as "Identify Scam Small Classroom" and "How to Deal with Unknown Calls". Although it was just a seemingly routine cooperation, it was widely reported by many media at home and abroad, and received in-depth attention at the column level.
This "small incident" has been "upgraded", reflecting an important trend: with the arrival of the "silver wave", elderly-friendly applications are becoming a key track of concern to the Internet industry. What kind of digital services do the elderly need? How should these services be designed and commercialized? It is becoming a question that more and more entrepreneurs and investors are trying to answer. It is also in this context that, as India's number one elderly-friendly application, Khyaal is subject to magnifying glass-like examination and analysis.
So, what kind of application is Khyaal? How did it quickly grow into India’s leading seniors platform in just a few years? And in the context of responding to population aging globally, what enlightenment can its path bring to other countries?
1. From online community to "India's No. 1"
"Khyaal" means "care" in Hindi. Its story began when the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020. At that time, India implemented strict stay-at-home orders and travel restrictions to prevent and control the epidemic, and the impact of the elderly was particularly prominent.
In reality, many elderly people in India become "empty nest elderly" after their children leave home as adults, and their daily lives are mostly done by themselves. Usually, children can go home to visit, assist in buying medicine, seeking medical treatment, doing housework, or simply chatting with each other. The elderly can also go out to socialize and maintain social contact. But the epidemic has broken this balance. Visiting cannot be achieved, going out becomes difficult, and life care and emotional support are both limited, so many elderly people are trapped in a physical and mental dilemma.
This sudden break in life attracted the attention of two young entrepreneurs. HemanshuJain and Pritish Nelleri realize that the rapid marginalization of the elderly with a weak digital foundation is hidden behind the huge neglected demand.
Jan is a serial entrepreneur with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and an MBA in financial management. He has long been focusing on the elderly and patient services field. Nellery is a senior sales and brand expert, specializing in market communication and product promotion. The two previously collaborated on developing a chronic disease management application called Diabeto, which was later acquired by the American health technology company LivongoHealth, and accumulated practical experience in medical technology and user operations.
During the epidemic, they decided to do something for the elderly. Initially, it only operated in the form of an online community, organizing expert lectures, healthy interactions and interest sharing to try to alleviate the loneliness of the elderly. The result was unexpected, and the number of community users exceeded 10,000 in just a few months. This prompted them to re-examine the value of this project: it is not only a "care community", but also a digital "solution platform for elderly life".
Soon, Khyaal officially launched in the form of an App, and its functions are constantly expanded and optimized. The platform integrates functional modules such as community interaction, live courses, learning and entertainment, travel services, health management, convenient payment and financial management, forming a one-stop digital ecosystem for silver users. All interfaces, interactive logic, and operation methods are specially designed around the cognitive habits of the elderly.
With highly adaptable product experience and clear service positioning, Khyaal quickly won user reputation after its launch. As of now, the platform's registered users have exceeded 3 million, and the market penetration rate among Indian silver hair users is extremely high. It is estimated that there are about 140 million to 150 million people over 60 in India, of which the Internet access rate is about 10%, that is, 14 million to 15 million. In other words, almost one in every four Indian elderly people surfing the Internet is using Khyaal.
Khyaal also performed well in the capital market. The platform has received more than US$5.4 million in financing so far, with a valuation of more than US$20 million, becoming one of the representative projects of the Indian silver-haired track. It has also won many industry awards such as GooglePlay's "Best Application of the Year" and "Medical Technology Innovation Award".
According to the founder's brief introduction, Khyaal's goal is to become a one-stop life solution platform for silver-haired people, providing daily convenience, and responding to deeper needs such as emotional companionship and digital empowerment. As its slogan says, “Ageingisfun (Happy to Be Old)”.
2. The potential and model of the elderly's application market
Khyaal's success is not an isolated incident, but a typical case in which the Internet industry actively embraces the "silver economy".
Since entering the 21st century, the global population aging process has accelerated significantly. According to the United Nations "World Population Outlook", the total number of elderly people aged 60 and above in the world has exceeded 960 million, accounting for about 12% of the global population. It is estimated that this number will exceed 2.1 billion by 2050, and one in every five people in the world will be elderly.
From the geographical distribution, Europe, North America and East Asia are more serious in aging, among which the proportion of the elderly population in Europe has reached 19%, and the proportion of North America and East Asia has also exceeded 15%. Specifically for China, according to the "2024 National Aging Development Bulletin" issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Aging Office, as of the end of 2024, the national elderly population aged 60 and above was about 310 million, accounting for 22.0% of the total population; of which the population aged 65 and above was 220 million, accounting for 15.6% of the total population.
Compared with the past, contemporary elderly people have a higher overall education level, stronger economic strength, and more open consumption concepts, and their ability to accept new things has also been greatly improved. Not only do they pay attention to quality of life and self-realization, their consumption willingness in tourism, culture and entertainment, health and wellness has also continued to rise. More importantly, their use of the Internet is becoming increasingly popular. Taking China as an example, according to the 56th "Statistical Report on the Development of the Internet in China" released by the China Internet Information Center (CNNIC), the number of elderly netizens over 60 years old in my country has reached 161 million, and the network penetration rate has reached 52%.
Precisely because the elderly have strong economic capabilities, willingness to consume and digital adaptability, they naturally become the target users that Internet companies and entrepreneurs compete for. In order to attract this huge group, developers from various countries have launched a large number of distinctive "silver hair applications" based on the characteristics of the elderly in their country.
The most representative one is the application for the elderly in Japan. As the country with the highest aging level in the world, Japan began to deploy "smart elderly care" and "silver technology" as early as the end of the last century. Since the elderly in Japan attach the most importance to health, their elderly applications are mainly medical and nursing. Many applications can be linked with wearable devices and medical institutions, focusing on solving problems such as chronic disease management, remote diagnosis and treatment, and nursing coordination.
For example, SoftBank's "SoftBank Health Management" application combines a bracelet-style sensor to monitor the blood pressure, heart rate and exercise of elderly users in real time, and generate health reports and synchronize them to the family doctor. Once the data is abnormal, the system will not only provide health advice, but will also automatically notify children or medical personnel to achieve immediate response. In addition, considering the changing climate in Japan and the high incidence of influenza, the application also has a built-in "cold alarm" that can push the "risk index" of local colds to users in real time.
In contrast, the development paths of elderly applications in European and American countries are different. Due to the developed financial system, the elderly have more prominent demand for asset management. Banks and insurance companies have become important forces in promoting the use of the elderly. Many European and American financial institutions have developed mobile applications specially customized for the elderly, focusing on payment security, financial convenience and anti-fraud education. These applications are usually equipped with a "big-character version" interface, voice assistant and simplified operational processes to lower the threshold for use. At the same time, they also regularly conduct "digital literacy training" in community banks or nursing homes to teach the elderly the skills such as identifying online scams and using online banking. The core is to strengthen the control of the elderly over their own assets and strengthen their status as a "economic entity", rather than relying on their children to do it.
In China, the development path of the elderly has shown different characteristics. Although my country's Internet economy is highly developed, there are relatively few independent applications specifically for the elderly. This is mainly because of the widespread existence of "super applications" such as WeChat and Alipay. In recent years, these "super applications" have continuously expanded their functions, covering almost all the daily needs of food, clothing, housing and transportation, and have thus become the "digital infrastructure" for most users. This constitutes a clear "ecological suppression" for the applications of the elderly in vertical fields.
However, there are indeed quite a lot of difficulties for the elderly when using "super app". Complex functional design, smaller fonts, and complex directory switching have all increased the threshold for use. Many elderly people actually only need a small part of the functions, but they have to pay high learning and operation costs. Although these applications have successively launched "care model" and "elderly version" in recent years, since their underlying architecture is not designed specifically for the elderly, it is difficult to fundamentally solve the problem.
In addition, the "elderly version" in the "super application" emphasizes simplified functions, but does not pay enough attention to "whether the elderly are willing to use it and whether they dare to use it." The psychological and emotional needs of the elderly, such as loneliness, social belonging, and digital trust, are still a "blank area" to be developed.
In this sense, Khyaal can be regarded as a truly "super application" designed for the elderly. It not only integrates the service functions that the elderly need most urgently, but also fully considers the convenience of use in product interaction, and is supplemented by a comprehensive service system that combines online and offline, thereby better responding to the diverse needs of the elderly. Khyaal's success may provide a sample worth learning from for the design and promotion of elderly applications around the world.
III. Value logic for the application of the elderly
If the exploration of the elderly application in various countries provides different approaches, then behind these cases, the multi-level structure of the digital needs of the elderly.
Like young people, the needs of the elderly are not a single dimension. Therefore, an excellent product must be able to meet the multi-dimensional needs of the elderly at the same time and truly hit its "pain points". For the convenience of analysis, we can divide the needs of the elderly into four levels:
The first layer is functional value. This is the most intuitive and easiest to perceive, and it is also the starting point for most elderly people to use it at present. Whether it is Japan's chronic disease management system or China's Alipay's "elderly version", they first solve the problem of convenience of life, such as how to make it easier for the elderly to see a doctor, buy medicine, pay fees, and travel, as well as how to simplify payment processes and help manage health indicators. The realization of functional value enables the elderly to complete "survival operations" in the digital world. If this layer is missing, there is no way to talk about any other value. In other words, the function is the "ticket" for the elderly to apply.
The second layer is emotional value. When older people master basic digital tools, their deeper needs often point to emotions and sociality. Loneliness is a common problem faced by middle-aged and elderly people in modern society: their children are busy with work, their friends are gradually withering, and their community connections are becoming increasingly thin. Digitalization may have exacerbated this feeling of loneliness, but it may also be a path to relief. As can be seen from the previous examples, Khyaal's success lies in the fact that it creates emotional value well. It offers not only yoga or health classes, but also a sense of "participation". Through online activities and points system, elderly users can feel that they still belong to the same community. This experience of being needed, being watched, and being listened to is often more attractive than simple functional services. It can be said that emotional value is the "soul" used by the elderly.
The third layer is security value. The biggest obstacle between the elderly and the digital world is often not "not knowing how to use it", but "not daring to use it". Internet fraud, information leakage, and complex terms and procedures have made many elderly people rather give up convenience than take risks. This psychology is completely understandable. For those over 60 years old, savings mean a sense of security, while being cheated may lead to the loss of security in their entire later years. Therefore, any design that can bring a "sense of peace of mind" will be highly valued. Khyaal’s collaboration with Truecaller is a positive response: helping the elderly rebuild digital trust through technical means and education and training. The value of security is not the icing on the cake, but the foundation in the foundation. Only by solving the problem of "dare not to use" can the digital world truly open its doors to the elderly.
The fourth layer is empowering value. This is the most overlooked, but probably the most potential. In daily life, people often think of the elderly as “cared for”, believing that their digital needs stop at health management, payments and social interactions. But in fact, many elderly people still have the desire to learn, create and contribute. Some elderly users hope to learn new skills such as photography, painting, foreign languages, etc. through the App; some people try to participate in part-time jobs, share experiences, and even start businesses on the platform. In a sense, digital technology provides them with the opportunity to “re-integrate into society”. The core of empowering value lies in making the elderly not only the "consumers" of the digital society, but also the "participants" and the "value co-creator".
The four levels are not isolated from each other, but progressing layer by layer. Functional value is the basis, which solves "whether it can be used"; emotional value brings "whether it is willing to use"; security value responds "whether it is dare to use"; while empowering value sublimates "use" into "participation", helping them find a new position in society. None of the four is missing. Only with the four layers of joint efforts can the elderly truly go far and stay.
For example, if an application can only help the elderly check blood pressure and register, then it stays at the most basic functional level and is easily replaced; if it further provides community and activity functions, it can introduce emotional value and enhance user stickiness; if it has built-in anti-fraud and fund insurance mechanisms, it can establish deep trust; and when it provides the elderly with channels to learn, reemployment and even achieve income through experience sharing, it will achieve the leap from "care" to "empowerment". At this time, the elderly are no longer passive recipients, but active citizens in digital society.
According to the above multi-dimensional standards, many elderly applications on the market in my country, including the elderly version of "super application", actually only meet the needs of the functional level, and their reach at other levels is still relatively limited. This means that a large number of real needs of the elderly have not been effectively responded to. From this perspective, although "super applications" have occupied a large market share, professional applications for the elderly still have huge market potential and room for growth.
IV. Profit model for the elderly
In addition to being able to fully meet user needs and create value for it, a successful product also needs to have a clear and sustainable profit model. Otherwise, even if you receive many users' praise, you may fall into the dilemma of "who is well received but not popular". So, what are the possible profit paths for elderly applications? The following patterns are worth exploring.
The first type is the member subscription system. This is the most common and intuitive path: basic functions are free, value-added services are charged. For example, elderly health applications can provide ordinary users with health reminders, community activities, basic payment and other services; while paid members can enjoy priority participation rights in customized health reports, one-on-one doctor consultations, professional interest courses, and even offline social clubs. Through a huge free user base, the platform then realizes revenue conversion from some paid users. The difficulty of this path lies in how to break the psychological barrier of users' "habitually not paying". Especially for some elderly people who live frugality, it is not easy to turn them into paid users. The solution is to link digital services with real benefits. For example, subscribers can enjoy "visible benefits" such as pharmacy discounts, physical examination discounts, insurance fee reductions, etc. Only when the elderly truly feel that spending money is worth it will they be willing to pay for the service.
The second type is the cross-border cooperation model. The elderly’s applications naturally have platform attributes, and can connect multiple service fields such as medical care, finance, tourism, and housekeeping, becoming a digital entrance to diversified services. The platform can take commissions in each transaction or share them with partners. For example, users make appointments for physical examinations through the platform, and settle settlements with hospitals; purchase pension insurance, and share the share with insurance companies; register for elderly tour groups, and cooperate with travel agencies. This model has a wide range of revenue sources, but it puts forward high requirements for platform resource integration capabilities and service quality control. Once a inferior partner is introduced, it may damage the reputation of the platform.
The third type is e-commerce and advertising mode. The elderly have stable consumption needs in health products, health care equipment, culture and entertainment, etc. The platform can obtain commissions or advertising revenue by recommending products, placing advertisements, etc. However, there are hidden risks in this path. Due to the limited discrimination ability of the elderly, if the platform recommends content distorted or excessive marketing, it is very likely to cause a crisis of trust and even arouse a rebound in public opinion. If we want to follow this path, the premise is to establish a "trusted e-commerce" mechanism. The platform should only recommend authoritatively certified products, and if necessary, it can jointly build the "silver certification" standard with regulatory agencies; advertising content must be presented in an educational and content-oriented manner, rather than direct hard advertising. Only in this way can e-commerce and advertising become "icing on the cake" rather than "spraying salt from the wound".
The fourth type is government-charity cooperation. In many countries, elderly-friendly services themselves have public product attributes. Governments or public welfare institutions can support enterprises to provide basic functions for the elderly through "purchase services", and enterprises can innovate value-added services on this basis. For example, medical insurance registration, social security inquiry, chronic disease follow-up, etc. are guaranteed by the government, while personalized courses, health tourism, financial management consultation, etc. are provided by enterprises. This can not only achieve universal benefits, but also stimulate market vitality. It should be noted that if you rely entirely on government procurement, companies are prone to lack of innovation motivation, so a more sustainable way is to have a hybrid mechanism of "government guarantee + enterprise value-added".
The fifth type is data and research monetization. The large amount of health, consumption, social data accumulated by the elderly during their operation is of great reference value for medical research, insurance pricing, and public policy formulation under the premise of legality and compliance. For example, in which areas, the elderly are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases? What lifestyle habits are related to health risks? This information is very attractive to hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and insurance companies. But the core premise of this model is compliance - once data abuse or privacy is violated, it will easily lead to a crisis of trust. Therefore, whether the data governance framework of "anonymization + transparency" can be established is the key to whether this model can be truly implemented.
The sixth type is community and social economy. The greatest potential for the elderly to use lies in its strong community attributes. Compared with young people, once elderly users establish trust, they tend to be more sticky. The platform can develop a variety of monetization methods around community relations, such as interest group fees, member clubs, points redemption, community mutual aid funds, etc. Its core logic is no longer purely transaction-driven, but a "non-standard value co-creation" based on emotions and sense of belonging. When elderly users gain "connection" and "identification" on the platform, their long-term willingness to participate and economic value will far exceed expectations.
Very. Balance between profit and social responsibility
It should be pointed out that the elderly are naturally a highly vulnerable consumer group. They have limited ability to identify risks and are highly dependent on authority. Once the business model relies too much on advertising or sales, it is easy to slide into the trap of "harvest with trust". In reality, news about the elderly being induced to purchase high-priced health products and false financial products is common, which has put the entire industry in a crisis of trust. If the elderly take this path, it is tantamount to destroying their future.
For this reason, when designing the business logic applied by the elderly, it is necessary to find a balance between commercialization and social responsibility to truly achieve both economic and social benefits. To do this, you need to pay special attention to the following aspects.
First, it is to ensure the transparency of the platform. Since the elderly often lack sensitivity to contract terms and digital payments, any charging items involved in the application should be open, clear and easy to understand to avoid problems such as implicit deductions and induce payments. The information display should be as concise and straightforward as possible. It is best to be equipped with voice explanation and manual assistance to help the elderly understand and judge their rights.
Secondly, it is to enhance the trustworthiness of the platform. To do this, an authoritative endorsement mechanism is needed to strengthen trust. For example, when cooperating with medical institutions, the application should clearly mark the qualifications of the partner; when promoting financial products, a certification mechanism regulated by banks or governments should be introduced to ensure that the product source is traceable and the mechanism is credible. Only in this way can elderly users dare to trust funds and health to the platform with confidence.
Release, it is to grasp the moderation of commercialization. The elderly can make profits, but they cannot be greedy. Its core value is companionship and empowerment, not promotion and monetization. If advertising information is overshadowed, the service experience will be destroyed. Platforms need to set up revenue paths in a restrained manner and build profits on services that truly bring value to users, rather than creating anxiety through information bombardment.
It is worth mentioning that Khyaal provides an inspiring case in this regard. It encourages users to participate in activities through the points system, but the prizes redeemed for points are mostly closely related to the community, such as health supplies, travel discounts, insurance discounts, etc. On the one hand, this design improves user stickiness, and on the other hand, it avoids the discomfort caused by direct sales. It shows us a possible direction: commercialization does not necessarily come at the cost of "harvest". As long as it is designed properly, it can achieve a win-win situation between users and platforms.
In the context of China, the social responsibility applied by the elderly is particularly important. On the one hand, the huge silver market and policy tilt mean that capital will inevitably enter; on the other hand, public opinion supervision and social sensitivity will also be more stringent. Once an incident of inducing consumption or deceiving the elderly occurs, it is likely to quickly trigger public opinion and even drag down the entire industry. Therefore, developers must have a long-term vision, actively embed responsibility ethics in business logic, and implement "service for the elderly" into every detail of products, operations and decision-making.
VI. Conclusion
The protagonist of the Internet has been almost always young people for the past two decades. When we talk about the "post-95s" and "Gen Z", we are chasing traffic, trends, efficiency and speed, but few people really stop to think: What do they feel when those old people who are most unfamiliar with the digital world passively get involved? What does their needs mean? It turns out that the elderly are not unwilling to go online, but they need someone to take the initiative to pull them and tell them that "it also belongs to you." Khyaal's success is a gentle demonstration. As long as the product design is thoughtful and the service is sincere, the elderly can become the most active and loyal digital users.
Of course, both in China and the world, elderly applications face the contradiction between the digital divide, lack of trust and business models. But because of this, they contain huge opportunities. As long as developers can face up to the real needs of the elderly and reach their deepest pain points, the elderly’s applications can not only create considerable social value, but also have a long-term and stable business future.
