Park Jung-ho Unveils 'Moebius Strip'... SKT 'Jump' Takes First Step in Global Market

New Brand Image of 'Jump'

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Cho] SK Telecom, which declared its leap to become a '5G content kingdom,' has unveiled the 'Mobius strip' ahead of the global expansion of its augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) platform 'Jump.' This new brand image (BI) symbolizes the infinite expansion of the virtual world. CEO Park Jung-ho personally ordered the change, signaling the company's intention to actively showcase diverse immersive media content worldwide through the Jump brand.

◆New BI Less Than Two Years After Launch

According to industry sources on the 30th, SK Telecom recently changed the BI of Jump, the immersive media brand that includes Jump AR, Jump VR, and Jump Studio. Considering that the Jump AR application was launched in Korea only 1 year and 4 months ago, this is an unusually rapid change. This reflects CEO Park's strong intention that the Jump brand should be more intuitive ahead of its global market entry. It is reported that Park emphasized a simple and clear message when instructing the BI change a few months ago.

The newly confirmed BI is inspired by the Mobius strip, which signifies 'infinite expansion,' and visualizes the first letter 'J' of Jump. The twist and connection of the Mobius strip emphasize that the real and virtual worlds coexist in a single space. It also conveys the feeling of a 'window (platform)' through which users jump into the AR/VR world.

SK Telecom also produced a separate teaser video for the new BI, emphasizing the image of a window leading into the virtual world. CEO Park approved the teaser video immediately upon viewing it during a recent briefing on the new BI. An SK Telecom official explained, "We focused on clarifying the image as an AR/VR platform." The previous BI connected the lowercase letters 'jump' with a single line to emphasize 'connectivity.' SK Telecom plans to apply the new BI to related services soon.

In the teaser video featuring Jump's new brand image, the Earth is reflected inside the alphabet J, reminiscent of a M?bius strip.

◆Jump Service Also Launches in Hong Kong

SK Telecom's Jump AR and VR apps began service in Hong Kong from this day, marking their first step into the global market. This is due to a business partnership with PCCW Group, the leading telecommunications company in Hong Kong. In its global expansion, SK Telecom chose to launch the Jump brand directly in local markets by partnering with major companies rather than exporting one-off content. The subscriber base, currently about 3 million, is planned to expand to 10 million by 2021.

The Jump AR app, which allows users to summon cute AR animals and celebrities to take photos and videos together, is recently evaluated as an optimized format for short-form user-generated content (UGC), especially popular among younger generations. The Jump VR app supports watching various VR content such as travel and K-pop, live streaming of LOL games, and social communication services like 'Virtual Meetup,' which enables conferences with up to 100 people in virtual spaces.

An SK Telecom official said, "Starting with Hong Kong, we will gradually increase the countries where the Jump brand is launched, including Southeast Asia and Europe," adding, "We are in discussions with several companies." These companies will also collaborate on 5G content marketing and content production investments. A content production platform is scheduled to be unveiled next year.

This is also one of the two tracks announced earlier by SK Telecom when declaring its leap to become a '5G content kingdom.' SK Telecom plans to accelerate the global expansion of its flagship services Jump AR and VR, while producing ultra-realistic content for entertainment, advertising, and education sectors centered on 'Jump Studio,' which integrates immersive media technologies such as AR and VR. Related to this, SK Telecom has filed nearly 50 AR/VR-related technology patents just this year.

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