Korean telco SK Telecom said on Monday it has signed several new publishing partnerships, including one with Malaysian operator CelcomDigi, to expand its metaverse product “ifland” to Southeast Asia.
SKT said it has expanded its partnership with CelcomDigi, which began in February 2023, to include collaboration on ifland. The telco also signed MoUs with Indonesian game developer and publisher Agate and Philippine IT company Cosmic Technologies, an IoT platform provider and consumer electronics and mobile devices supplier.
Under the partnerships, CelcomDigi, Agate and Cosmic Technologies will provide localized content and marketing for ifland in their respective markets, as well as primary customer support. SKT will focus on areas that apply to all global versions of ifland, such as service planning and operation and content creation.
Yang Maeng-seog, VP and head of Metaverse CO at SKT, said the deals allow its partners to gain experience in the metaverse service business without making initial investments for service development, while SKT will be able to offer content tailored to each country or region quickly.
“By signing agreements with three leading IT companies in Southeast Asia, we will be able to carry out customized marketing in these countries,” said Yang.
The MoUs are part of SKT’s ongoing plan to turn ifland into a global app. SKT launched ifland in Korea in 2021, and released the app in 49 countries in November 2022. In the past year it’s been developing a range of content and features for global users, such as virtual meetups with K-pop stars.
SKT said it’s also working to add Indonesian, Malay, Hindi and Spanish to the list of supported languages, as these languages represent large potential user groups. SKT is also developing a curation feature that recommends content based on customer characteristics and region of access.
Going forward, SKT will provide more administrator rights to its partners to vitalize use of ifland in each region. The telco also plans to recruit ifland partners in the US, India and Europe in the future, said Yang. “We will continue to do our best to provide ifland users with content and services that understand their culture and society by partnering with more local companies.”
