SK Square and SKT Invest 50 Billion KRW in 'Korean Version of Roblox'

'PlayTogether' Operator Haegin
Two Companies Become Third Largest Shareholders
Metaverse, NFT, Cryptocurrency
Accelerating Completion of Technology Integration Blueprint
SKT Integrates Games into Its Own Business

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] SK Square and SK Telecom announced on the 6th that they will jointly invest a total of 50 billion KRW in HaeGin, the operator of "Play Together," known as the "Korean version of Roblox." This move aims to complete a blueprint that integrates metaverse, non-fungible token (NFT), and cryptocurrency technologies centered around their own metaverse (extended virtual world) platform, "ifland." SK Telecom, advancing toward "SKT 2.0," also plans to incorporate gaming elements into its AI-based new business, "AI-VERSE."

HaeGin’s Third Largest Shareholder

According to the telecommunications industry, SK Square and SK Telecom will become the third largest shareholders of HaeGin through this investment. As strategic investors (SI) participating in management rather than simple financial investors (FI), they will hold the largest stake. Although the exact shareholding ratio has not been disclosed, it is estimated to be in the single digits below 10%. HaeGin attracted attention as a next unicorn after successfully raising Series B funding earlier this year. A unicorn company is an unlisted startup with a corporate value exceeding 1 trillion KRW and a founding history of less than 10 years.

HaeGin’s main business model is the metaverse game "Play Together," which offers over 30 types of real-time mini-games. It includes communication features such as making friends while enjoying mini-games like running and passing the bomb. The global cumulative downloads have surpassed 100 million, and the recent daily active users (DAU) have exceeded 4 million. At the time of investment earlier this year, major domestic game companies such as Kakao Games, Neptune, and Netmarble also joined as investors.

SK Expands Metaverse Investment

SK Square plans to utilize HaeGin’s technology in the "next platform" competition. With the advent of the Web 3.0 era, which advocates decentralization and participant-centered economic systems, next-generation platforms encompassing AI, metaverse, and blockchain are emerging as key competitive topics. Since its spin-off and launch in November last year, SK Square has invested a total of 133 billion KRW over six months in virtual asset exchange Korbit, 3D digital human production company Onmind, and Korea’s largest agricultural innovation agtech company Greenlabs. Except for Greenlabs, all these companies possess metaverse-related technologies. Including this latest investment, the total reaches 183 billion KRW. SK Square plans to link existing metaverse and membership/point services with cryptocurrency to build a blockchain-based economic system. They will release a cryptocurrency white paper this year and pursue cryptocurrency issuance and listing.

SK Telecom intends to introduce gaming elements into its own new business through cooperation with HaeGin. They plan to enhance and provide gaming elements to increase the time subscribers spend on various services. SK Telecom and HaeGin services will share avatars and spaces and hold joint events, introducing the concept of a "multiverse." They are also considering mid- to long-term plans to link blockchain-based virtual economic systems.

Metaverse Forms $8 Trillion Market

The global metaverse market size is estimated to range from $800 billion to $8 trillion. Although estimates vary by institution, growth is expected to be steep. Bloomberg Intelligence forecasted that the metaverse market size will grow 63.6% from $478.7 billion last year to $783.3 billion in 2024. Investment bank Morgan Stanley sees the future metaverse market, including social media, streaming, and gaming integrated platforms, reaching up to $8 trillion (approximately 9,434 trillion KRW). Edward Stanley, Morgan Stanley’s investment strategist, stated in a report, "The metaverse will fundamentally change the medium through which we meet and socialize with others."

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