Kakao Entertainment and Netmarble F&C to Create Metaverse Virtual Idol Group

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Kakao Entertainment announced on the 25th that it will participate as a strategic investor in Netmarble F&C's 'Metaverse Entertainment.' This is the first case of a comprehensive entertainment company entering the metaverse domain. They plan to jointly develop metaverse content, including a global virtual idol business.

The metaverse project's beginning is a K-pop virtual idol group. Metaverse Entertainment, currently developing characters, plans to introduce an idol group composed of a unique worldview and distinctive characters within next year.

The production of the idol group will actively utilize the know-how of both companies. It will organically combine Netmarble F&C's solid meta-human technology, which made the mobile game 'The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross' a hit domestically and internationally, with Kakao Entertainment's unique management capabilities.

Currently, Kakao Entertainment plans and produces 12,000 songs annually through collaborations with various artists and owns Melon, the number one music streaming platform with a total of 33 million members and over 5 million paid subscribers.

To seek long-term synergy, Kakao Entertainment's specialized personnel will also join Metaverse Entertainment.

Additionally, the two companies have decided to proceed with various character metaverse businesses centered on Kakao Entertainment's story intellectual property (IP) such as webtoons and web novels, and game characters owned by Netmarble F&C.

Lee Jin-su, CEO of Kakao Entertainment, said, "We expect that the combination of Netmarble F&C's top character production capabilities and Kakao Entertainment's global value chain will bring another breakthrough to the new world of the metaverse," and added, "Starting with virtual idols, we will not stop our challenge toward the global entertainment market."

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