"When Craving Songs, Build Your Own Karaoke" SKT Ifland, a Platform Created Together with Users

Interview with Song Hyeongju, SKT Metaverse Development Project Leader (PL)

Song Hyeong-ju, PL of Metaverse Development at SKT

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] "The metaverse (extended virtual world) is a new digital 'world.' 'Ifland' is not a platform where the developer provides specific killer content, but rather a platform where users autonomously create a new space to engage in various activities. If you want to sing with others, you create a karaoke room yourself."

Song Hyung-joo, SK Telecom's Metaverse Development Project Leader (PL), emphasized in an interview with Asia Economy on the 31st that the metaverse is not a passive space where participants simply enjoy provided content, but an active space where they find what they want to do and create their own stage. He warned against narrowly understanding the metaverse as specific content or technologies such as avatars and virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR).

"Diverse Metaverse, User-Driven"

PL Song explained that the metaverse SK Telecom aims for is also a space where various forms of communication activities can take place based on technological advancements. SK Telecom highlights that Ifland is a metaverse specialized in interest-based 'gatherings.' When accessing the Ifland application (app) on a smartphone, users can create 3D avatars and participate in gatherings of interest such as book talk concerts, counseling sessions, busking, meditation, and late-night movie screenings.

Since 2013, SK Telecom has been developing VR and AR technologies. After renaming its self-produced VR-based platform app 'Jump VR' to 'Jump Virtual Meetup' and updating its features last month, it launched the metaverse service under the name Ifland to respond to market changes. According to global consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the metaverse-related market size, which was $95.7 billion (about 110 trillion KRW) last year, is expected to grow to $1.5429 trillion (about 1,770 trillion KRW) by 2030.

PL Song said that for Ifland's communication activities to become more diverse and expanded, the service must be user-driven. To this end, the Ifland development team adopts a method of closely observing and responding to users' usage patterns. He stated, "Rather than pre-creating a few services during the development stage and recommending them as core use cases, it is a more progressive approach to operate the service by watching various user use cases and providing technical support accordingly."

As a representative example, PL Song mentioned rooms where people gather to sing within Ifland. He explained, "Recently, the number of singing rooms in Ifland has been increasing. Currently, users gather to sing either a cappella or to music played by the host, but we are considering service improvements such as adding echo functions to the microphones in these rooms or supporting karaoke screens and backgrounds to create an environment similar to singing together in an actual karaoke room."

"Increased Usage Enhances Immersion"

He predicted that as the variety of service use cases increases, the development of devices will accelerate, ultimately speeding up both the quantitative and qualitative growth of the metaverse. PL Song said, "If more things can be done even in mobile-centered metaverses, which currently have relatively low immersion, the demand for devices that can enhance immersion will increase. This will accelerate the development of devices such as head-mounted displays (HMDs) that can enhance immersion and contribute to increasing the realism of the metaverse."

Ifland also plans to release a VR device Oculus Quest version within this year. PL Song explained, "Jump VR was originally a project started with HMD use in mind. For example, to view presentation materials in mobile Ifland, you need to switch to full view or move your avatar, but with an HMD, you can just turn your head on the spot, which offers much better immersion." He added, "We are currently conducting experiments to optimize user experience. We are at the stage of considering which perspective?third-person or first-person?is suitable, how to provide chat functions, and which features to add or remove."

PL Song emphasized that as the metaverse advances, SK Telecom's strength as a mobile communication infrastructure provider will also be highlighted. As metaverse devices evolve, such as the widespread use of HMDs, the volume of data exchanged, including 3D model information, will inevitably increase exponentially, and SK Telecom can have a relative advantage in optimizing this. He said, "Real-time synchronization technology is necessary to connect spaces and people, and we believe we have competitiveness over other companies in synchronization technology that enables large-scale real-time communication in a short time."

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