"Supporting Commercialization of Immersive Media Services" KT Hosts Startup Contest

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Cho] KT announced on the 11th that it will hold an immersive media service startup contest to expand the immersive media ecosystem in collaboration with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy and Innovation. The plan is to discover new immersive media service items based on Super VR that allow customers to experience a sense of presence and reality without having to visit the site in person, and to support their commercialization.

This contest is part of ‘The Power of Connection, Digital Dream 9,’ a new collaborative project where startups solve challenges presented by large corporations. KT was selected as the lead company for the immersive media project among nine fields representing the post-COVID era, including AI, content, and eco-friendly materials, supported by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

In particular, KT emphasized a new type of ‘Interaction Service’ that existing VR services have not provided as the core keyword for this contest. The goal is to discover ideas that implement VR content more realistically through various methods, such as providing interactive two-way services that enable communication between users or between service providers and users, moving away from one-way video viewing, or offering additional information using large 180° or 360° screens.

The contest will proceed through three evaluation stages. KT and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups will select about 10 startups by September through the first and second evaluation stages. The selected startups will undergo up to two months of task refinement. Afterwards, KT and the Ministry will hold a demo day in November to select three startups capable of providing differentiated services, awarding each up to 100 million KRW in prize money and supporting service commercialization and business development.

Startups with ideas to solve the presented challenges can apply online through the K-Startup startup support portal website (www.k-startup.go.kr) by August 20.

Jung-ho Park, Executive Director of KT IM Business, said, “We hope to discover fresh services that can break the existing common sense framework through collaboration between startups and large corporations,” adding, “We will continue to discover promising domestic startups, provide opportunities for market entry, and create business models where both sides can win, continuously showcasing immersive media services on a different level.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.