SK Telecom (Korea’s largest telecommunications company), which marks the first anniversary of its launch, is planning to enter the global market within this year by installing new technologies such as sponsorship functions.
SK Telecom announced on the 13th that it has completed development of English version of Efriend. Based on this, SK Telecom is planning to release E-Land sequentially from the second half of this year in partnership with major global telecommunication companies such as Asia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East.SK Telecom has already had a huge number of subscribers through its platforms (Cyworld), which has gained sensational popularity in Korea and was introduced before YouTube and Instagram, which are now in the spotlight for communication and photo-video. However, it was active only in Korea, and has a weak history of global promotion.SK Telecom is currently discussing ways to discover metaverse contents and conduct joint marketing with representative telecommunication companies in each region.

Efriend, which was released on July 14 last year, recorded a cumulative download of about 2.9 million in December, six months later. In June of this year, it surpassed 8.7 million downloads. Based on the strength of the live video relay function and support for simultaneous access of up to 131 people in Korea, more than 2,000 partner love calls were received from various companies and organizations.
Even after the lifting of the distance, the average monthly stay in the land for efriend users increased by about 10% from 55 minutes as of March to 61 minutes as of last month after social distancing was lifted.SK Telecom cited partnership with original content and external sources as major growth factors for Efland. According to SK Telecom, the volume metric concert “Metabus Music Festival,” which was introduced by Efriend last month, attracted more than 20,000 visitors during the event.SK Telecom is expanding its partnership with the outside world by hosting the metaverse audition “Tintin Audition” in cooperation with Dong-A University of Broadcasting and Arts this month.New functions such as point payment and sponsorship will be added during the third quarter of this year. If users participate in continuous activities such as attendance and mission performance, points that can be used like cash will be paid in the future.
It plans to introduce internal economic systems sequentially, such as adding a function to send sponsorships to hosts hosting metaverse meetings. It will also introduce an open 3D content platform that can make profits by selling costumes and items designed and produced by users themselves.
Through this, when the participation compensation system in the metaverse is activated, various economic activities in the metaverse are expected to open in earnest.

In addition, SK Telecom’s phone platform “T Phone” has changed its service name and function significantly to target the global market starting with North America in the first half of this year.

According to industries on the 10th, it is confirmed that SK Telecom plans to make a new name for T-phone’s global brand and enter global markets such as North American markets in the first half of this year.As of January, T Phone, which has 11 million subscribers in Korea, was launched in February 2014 as an app-type phone call platform that informs smartphone users of risk numbers such as spam and smishing and provides various functions such as group calls.SK Telecom has set a basic policy to independently expand T-phone into North America and Southeast Asia, and is working on establishing databases (DBs) for each country. It plans to establish an “open ecosystem” that can be connected to any domestic and foreign businesses, even if it proceeds independently to enter the market itself.It also plans to increase the possibility of success by adding new functions that accommodate global needs (demand) rather than simply expanding the number of users through local marketing.In particular, SK Telecom is considering changing the service name of T-phone in order to successfully enter the global market. An official from SK Telecom explained, “We are considering the name of a new service and are aiming for a global integrated brand,” adding, “We are also considering applying a separate brand in certain countries considering that it may not be able to consider the situation of each country.”

In fact, SK Telecom has started developing T-phone’s global brand with external companies since December last year, according to a business watch report. It is a task to newly configure service logos and app designs suitable for global brands.

SK Telecom expects that if the T-phone platform succeeds in entering the global market this year, it can be used as a bridgehead for various global services in the future. It is judged that the profit model can also be built in various ways according to the local situation.

SK Telecom’s new president Chung Ho-bak also stressed in his New Year’s address this year, “Let’s become Korea’s leading ICT company and create a global top-class platform through cooperation and investment with various operators,” raising the possibility of a stronger drive than ever.

However, competition with global market operators as well as providing services suitable for foreign users’ smartphone usage environments is expected to be the key to success.

An official from the company said, “There are competitive services of T-phone, such as phone apps installed in smartphones and services for various phone-related functions, but platforms that provide integrated services like T-phone are not identified.”

In addition, it is said that SK Telecom’s biggest concern is to create services suitable for the communication environment and customer needs of foreign markets such as North America. An official from SK Telecom said, “The plan may change depending on the DB construction work for each region, but we plan to advance in the order of North America and Southeast Asia,” adding, “We plan to develop the platform while testing existing and new functions.”

SOPHIA KIM

ASIA JOURNAL

Metaverse is a combination of “Universe,” which means the real world, and “Meta,” which means “processing, abstract,” and means a three-dimensional virtual world. As Untact culture is popular due to COVID-19, the Metaverse, which can gather a large number of unspecified people in a virtual space at once, and can perform activities without time and space restrictions, is attracting more attention. The most famous Metaverse platforms include Naver Z’s avatar service, ZEPETO, and SK Telecom’s Efriend. ZEPETO creates 3D avatars to communicate with other users and provides services that allow them to experience various virtual reality experiences. It contains AR contents, games, and SNS functions, so it is very popular among young people. In a situation where offline events are not possible due to the COVID-19 crisis, Metaverse sometimes takes the place of concert halls. In addition, the Metaverse is being used in various fields, such as workshops, events, and university welcome parties for freshmen. When you act as a new character or character that is not your usual self, you are called a “Alter ego”. Alter ego was originally used as a game term, but is now one of the most frequently used terms in Metaverse. The Millennials and Gen Z who are trying to find pleasure by creating a second ego in the virtual world away from the harsh reality is gaining great popularity. It has become the so-called ‘golden age of Alter ego’. As such, the metaverse has had many changes and influences not only on our culture but also on our daily life. Let’s take a closer look at these changes and their impacts.

As it became impossible to talk face-to-face or host events due to the COVID-19, people began to find a way to replace this situation. One such method to solve this problems is the ‘Metabus’. Metabus has the advantage of being able to gather an unspecified number of people at once in a virtual space such as the Internet, and it can be engage in activities without restrictions on time and space.

The first platform that brought the Metabus craze to Korea is ‘Zepeto’, developed by Naver Jet. Launched in 2018, the platform has gained great popularity, especially among the MZ generation in their teens and 20s. The fact that anyone can design another character within the platform and communicate with others through the character can be seen as a good target for the MZ generation, which values individuality. In particular, in combination with the recent concept of ‘boo-character’, Geppetto users find another possibility that is different from reality through their characters. This craze of ‘Zepeto’ is clearly different from other platforms in various ways, with JYP, YG, and SM actually carrying out comeback promotions for each group within the platform.

There is a platform that has become a topic of conversation as the scope of metabuses has expanded since COVID-19. It’s “Gather.town.” Launched in May 2020, Gethertown is still sensational as it allows people to hold events online that inevitably gather a lot of people in the Corona era. This advantage of Gethertown has allowed companies and government local governments as well as the private sector to host events using Gethertown. In fact, Gumi Health Center provides online counseling services using Gethertown to citizens, and large companies such as GS Retail also hold job briefings and fairs through this platform. Events using the Metabus platform continue until now when distancing has been lifted, and as the use of such metabus space increases, various companies are entering the Metabus increases. In fact, as the Metabus business expands, the stock price will rise 88 percent from the current level, and the newly inaugurated Yoon government promised to visit IT events and fully support ICT innovation projects including Metabus.

Another area where Metabus has begun to be directly introduced into real life these days is “education.” As futurist Roger James Hamilton, who predicted that 2024 would spend more time in the 3D virtual world than in the 2D Internet world, interest in the use of metabuses in education is increasing today. As you get used to non-face-to-face life due to COVID-19, you can look at various educational sites using Metabus. Yeungnam University held the entrance ceremony for freshmen in 2022 in a metabus space. At Janggi Elementary School in Siheung-si, Gyeonggi-do, Metabus is now applied to the concept of real space beyond simple space reproduction, so expectations for a metabus that creates an effective and better educational environment are increasing. Infinite space and educational materials based on Metabus can provide an educational environment beyond time and space, which is expected to be of great help to improve students’ creativity. It is expected that many institutional levels of support will be introduced in the field of compulsory elementary, middle and high school education so that the educational environment in Metabus can be actively created.

However, Metaverse, which has grown suddenly, has threats that require adequate laws and regulations. Paradoxically, the Metaverse is a free space, but without laws and regulations, it becomes a space where freedom cannot be enjoyed due to all kinds of threats. The philosopher Hobbes described the state of a society without laws and regulations as “The war of all against all.” Metaverse will also be in the state of “The war of all against all” where cybercrime and many other threats are prevalent unless suitable laws and regulations are in place. Therefore, in order to minimize expected threats and effectively utilize the Metaverse, it is necessary to correctly predict and prepare for its future. Metaverse has not yet become common enough, so appropriate laws have not been prepared, but they can gradually melt into everyday life, so we need to prepare for this. It is most urgent to prevent various cybercrimes that may occur in Metaverse. Crimes in Metaverse, such as “Avatar Sex Offences,” are already occurring, and it is difficult to punish them properly. When order is established in the Metaverse society, the advantages of it will be further highlighted and it will be utilized in more diverse fields.

K-UNIV

ASIA JOURNAL

Tech firms showcased their latest gadgets at the MWC, which kicked off with the keynote speaker SoftBank Group chief executive Masayoshi Son saying, “Artificial intelligence will be smarter than the human brain within 30 years.”

LG Electronics moved into the limelight at this year’s tech event by outpacing its rival Samsung in revealing its newest smartphone G6, the first non-Google phone to support the Google Assistant, an AI-based voice assistant.

With the adoption of machine learning — the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed — the AI assistant makes its smartphone smarter the more one uses it, the company said.

LG set up a separate room to demonstrate its Google Assistant and how it can be connected to other devices like a smartwatch. When one visitor vice commanded the smartwatch play Michael Jackson, the music was played through the G6 smartphone connected to the watch.

A LG official said, “The Google Assistant, with its open platform, can be further connected with other products like home appliances in the future.”

LG G6′s Google Assistant (The Korea Herald/Shin Ji-hye)

Korean telecom operator SK Telecom also showcased its AI-powered speaker NUGU alongside some home robots made in partnership with local tech companies Future Robot and IPL.

NUGU was demonstrated in English during the event in partnership with IBM’s question-answering computer system Watson. Other robots ran only in Korean language.

Visitors paid keen attention to how NUGU worked, giving out such commands in English as ”tomato spaghetti recipe,” to which the speaker correctly recited the instructions.

Ernst-Joachim Steffens, research director at Deutsche Telekom, said he tried several robots at the event.

“In Germany, we don’t have such home robots although we do have many industrial robots. I want to buy it if the price is affordable,” he said.

SK Telecom’s NUGU (The Korea Herald/Shin Ji-hye)

German automaker BMW, meanwhile, demonstrated its connected car technology outside the main hall in partnership with chipmaker Intel.

When an employee wearing a smartwatch made a gesture, the car parked in a garage moved backward for a driver to get in. It was possible as the sensors in the car can detect objects in its surroundings, according to the firm.

BMW’s autonomous driving technology is expected to be further developed through Intel’s 5G-ready solution platform when the 5G network is fully ready by 2020, it added.

Intel said it will deploy machine and neural learning technology to help the car “think” via cloud.

For instance, if there is a dog standing in front of the car, it will recognize it as a dog because it has the capability to recognize the type of an object and make an instant decision.

“The more the car is used on the road, the car becomes smarter as it collects more data and learns more realistic scenarios even car designers haven’t thought of,” Rob Topol, general manager of Intel’s 5G business and technology unit, told The Korea Herald.

BMW Connected car (The Korea Herald/Shin Ji-hye)