Mathijs Demaeght and Esther Huybreghts developed Pok Pok with their own children in mind.Supplied
When Esther Huybreghts and husband Mathijs Demaeght began developing Pok Pok in 2019, the new parents were aiming for an app that would both entertain and stimulate their toddler creatively.
“There was nothing on the market that could give our kid both,” says Ms. Huybreghts, chief creative officer and co-founder of the Toronto-based kids educational app company.
The iOS app, which launched in May, 2021, features “digital toys” for children aged 2 to 7 and was created with Montessori principles, an education philosophy that lets children learn through promoting natural interests instead of formal teaching methods. Pok Pok’s main draw is its 16-toy fleet of games, which were designed to be “non-addictive.” In the past year, the app has quadrupled its subscribers, and in November, Pok Pok took home a 2023 Apple App Store Award as one of the best apps of the year.
“We created the app for our own children,” says Ms. Huybreghts, whose kids are now 6 and 7.
In contrast to the busy videos on YouTube Kids, which Alphabet Inc. GOOGL-Q launched in 2015, and popular video games crammed with graphics, Pok Pok opts for what the company’s other co-founder and chief executive officer Melissa Cash calls “soft” looks and sounds, which are recorded and hand-drawn in Toronto and feature only a handful of colours.
“The whole experience is gentler, slower and calmer than addicting video games,” Ms. Huybreghts says.
In the global educational apps market – which is expected to reach US$102.6-billion in value by 2027, according to market research from Global Brainstorm Research – creating an app that children can put down might be contrary to good business practices.
Beyond the appeal of playing games, the app’s foundation in Montessori concepts also offers kids and parents an educational aspect.
Pok Pok, which charges a subscription fee of $8.99 a month, encourages children to learn through independent play, discovery and creation instead of traditional models such as addition or spelling.
“We really wanted kids to be able to explore and create, giving them toys instead of games to imagine with and play in,” Ms. Cash says.
Melissa Cash, co-founder and CEO of Pok Pok, shows a visitor the company’s app at the company’s Toronto office on Jan 4. Pok Pok is an app that nurtures creativity and play amongst young children.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
The developers worked with multiple educators, including Laura Petix, a pediatric occupational therapist and sensory expert based in California, and Dr. Sudha Swaminathan, a professor of early childhood education at Eastern Connecticut State University, to ensure the app is educational and non-addictive.
“Shops,” one of the digital toys available on Pok Pok, is a digitized dollhouse featuring a bakery, plant shop and pet shop that allows children to create and care for items while learning about them.
This freestyle play is another aspect of what makes Pok Pok non-addictive, Ms. Huybreghts says, a feature that appeals to parents looking to reduce their children’s screen time, which has risen during the pandemic.
The Canadian Paediatric Society updated its screen-time guidelines in November, 2022, recommending that parents limit their children’s routine or sedentary screen time (time spent with any screen including televisions, computers, gaming, smartphones and tablets) to an hour or less a day, for children between two and five years old.
“There is no winning in the app, so there’s no sort of dopamine that comes with the winning or beating a level that keeps making you want to play, like in a video game,” Ms. Cash says.
Pok Pok was in good company as an Apple AAPL-Q award winner this year, coming in alongside Copenhagen-based Too Good To Go, a sustainable food app with more than 84 million users that connects customers to restaurants and stores with surplus food, and three other apps in the “cultural impact” category.
Part of that cultural impact in Pok Pok’s case is inclusive design. The app features characters of different body types, abilities, races and genders, as well as LGBTQ+ couples and blended families, an aspect of the app that Ms. Huybreghts says was important from its conception: “We wanted to give kids windows and mirrors into the world.”