November 30, 2024

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SK Telecom’s metaverse platform ifland marks its one-year anniversary on Wednesday. (SK Telecom)

SK Telecom will distribute and circulate in-metaverse cash on its virtual platform ifland to encourage more participation from users starting in the third quarter, the South Korean mobile carrier said Wednesday.

Calling it an introduction of an internal economic system, ifland users will be given points that can be used as cash on the platform if they participate in continuous activities such as building up attendance and carrying out missions. With such points, users will be able to sponsor others who host metaverse meetings on ifland.

The upgraded ifland will have profit-generating models on the new 3D content platform where users can design and produce costumes or items and sell them to others in the metaverse.

SK Telecom said industry watchers expect explosive growth in the number of creators and influencers on metaverse platforms once reward systems are activated and allow various economic activities.

The mobile carrier also plans to launch ifland in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East in the second half of this year. It said the company has been cooperating with major telecommunications service providers in each region to discuss local ifland content and marketing strategies for regional customers.

SK Telecom completed the development of ilfand’s English version in June. The company is expected to launch ifland’s computer version in the third quarter.

“The ifland project has been loved by a wide range of users, many companies and organizations over the past year, and it has been able to grow into a representative social metaverse,“ said Yang Maeng-seok, head of SK Telecom‘s metaverse business.

”We will enrich the metaverse ecosystem by introducing upgraded functions and content.”

Thursday will mark the one-year anniversary of SK Telecom’s ifland. According to the company, ifland has been downloaded over 8.7 million times as of June. The mobile carrier underscored ifland’s live video streaming function -- one of a kind in the country -- and its capacity to support an online gathering of up to 131 people at once, saying that there have been over 2,000 collaboration offers from companies and organizations.

By Kan Hyeong-woo (hwkan@heraldcorp.com)