Last year, South Korean mobile operator SK Telecom announced the launch of its metaverse platform, Ifland, aiming to deliver diverse virtual spaces with customisable and expressive user avatars.
Ifland is considered one of the two major metaverse platforms in Korea, along with Naver’s Zepeto.
Now, SK Telecom has announced a new partnership with Morph Interactive…

Last year, South Korean mobile operator SK Telecom announced the launch of its metaverse platform, Ifland, aiming to deliver diverse virtual spaces with customisable and expressive user avatars.

Ifland is considered one of the two major metaverse platforms in Korea, along with Naver’s Zepeto.

Now, SK Telecom has announced a new partnership with Morph Interactive, a Seoul-based company that specialises in computer systems design and three-dimensional motion graphics. 

The two companies have entered into a strategic cooperation agreement that will see SK Telecom buy an undisclosed stake in Morph Interactive, as well as collaborating to develop new functions the Ifland platform. 

These new functions will include allowing user avatars to interact with props and introduce minigames that can be played individually or with other users in the same virtual space.

Yang Maeng-seok, head of SK Telecom‘s metaverse business, described the investment as the foundation for “providing Ifland users with more fun factors”. 

By the end of the year, other features added to the platform will include the inception of Ifland’s own digital economy in the form of crypto currency and the launch of a virtual shop, which will allow users to purchase outfits for their avatars. 

« We will do our best to make Ifland a means of communication that gets closer to the daily lives of many users and can be actively used in corporate business, » commented Morph Interactive CEO, Kim Jung-youl.  

In a demonstration of Ifland’s viability as a medium for business, the contract between SK Telecom and Morph was itself enacted through a virtual ceremony held on Ifland platform, with the two companies’ executives signing this contact with their virtual avatars.

In related news this week, SK Telecom continues to enhance its own multimedia capabilities, announcing the development of an AI Post Production platform that uses AI technology to detect and remove subtitles, copyrighted music, and embedded graphics from video content. This will help the content to meet the distribution standards of global platforms like Netflix and Amazon, thereby making it easier for companies to export Korean content overseas.