SK Telecom’s ifland to circulate in-metaverse cash

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 internal economic system, ifland users will be given points that can used as cash in the platform, if they take part 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 with the new 3D content platform where users can design and produce costumes or items to sell them to others in the metaverse.

SK Telecom said industry watchers expect an 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 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 content on ifland’s and marketing strategies for regional customers.

In doing so, 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.

“Ifland 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 of supporting 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)