SK Telecom Co has begun investing in a production firm following an initiative it launched in May to boost South Korea’s metaverse and virtual reality (VR) solutions, Yonhap news reported on Monday.
The Seoul-based telecom giant struck a deal with HTC’s ViveStudios and plans to include the firm’s 3D filming solutions in its services lineup, the report said. Details of the deal have not been revealed.
According to SK Telecom, the partnership aims to boost the company’s virtual meetup solutions, namely after launching its Jump metaverse platform, which allows users to form virtual meetings using avatars.
SK Telecom plans to use ViveStudios’s immersive 3D filming and visual effects for its metaverse services.
ViveStudios created the celebrated “VOLT” VR series in 2017. The firm is the developing and content creation wing for HTC’s VIVE lineup of virtual reality solutions.
The news comes after SK Telecom worked jointly with K-pop girl band STAYC, who used the Jump AR app to allow fans to take photos with their augmented reality (AR) avatars.
South Korea’s Metaverse Alliance, NVIDIA Theories
The latest developments come after South Korea’s Ministry of Science and Information and Communications Technology (MSIT) announced in May it would step up efforts to boost the nation’s metaverse sector via a massive industry alliance, reports revealed.
The 17-member alliance of tech firms, which includes SK Telecom, Hyundai Motor Co, and Korean Mobile Internet Business Association, among others, aims to collaborate on metaverse technologies and build a consultative body to analyse ethics and concerns on the metaverse market, Yonhap reported at the time.
South Korea’s alliance also comes amid a massive ‘Digital New Deal’ the country launched amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to ensure broadband connectivity across the nation.
Major players in the global tech market such as Nvidia also aim to create metaverses thousands of times larger than the physical world.
The global virtual world would interact interchangeably with the physical world via AR technologies, company chief executive officer Jensen Huang, said in a statement in April.
