"Strengthening Metaverse Competitiveness" SK Telecom Signs Business Cooperation and Equity Investment Agreement with VIV Studios

Jeon Jin-su, Head of Metaverse CO at SKT (left), and Kim Se-gyu, CEO of VIVE Studios.

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Eun-mo] SK Telecom announced on the 14th that it has signed a business cooperation and equity investment agreement with Vive Studios, a top-tier virtual production specialized studio in Korea. The investment amount and exchanged equity scale will not be disclosed according to the agreement between the two companies.

Vive Studios is a 3D video production studio specializing in 3D computer-generated imagery (CGI) and visual effects (VFX). It has produced numerous immersive contents including the virtual reality (VR) film series "Bolt," and gained attention last year with the VR human documentary "I Met You." Recently, it also unveiled an integrated control solution called "VIT (ViveStudios Immersive Technology)" that enables realistic video production within a virtual studio without on-location shooting.

Through this investment cooperation, SK Telecom plans to strengthen its competitiveness in metaverse services by combining its own technologies such as Jump Virtual-Meetup, JumpAR, and Jump Studio with Vive Studios' 3D video production capabilities. First, avatars and virtual spaces within SK Telecom’s core metaverse platform, Virtual-Meetup, are expected to provide customers with a more immersive metaverse experience through Vive Studios’ real-time 3D production and VFX technologies.

Additionally, digital human contents created with volumetric technology at Jump Studio are expected to evolve into even more realistic content. By combining volumetric content with Vive Studios’ virtual production, it will be possible to produce lifelike immersive content and apply it to Jump Virtual-Meetup, JumpAR, and other platforms.

Vive Studios also expects that cooperation with SK Telecom will provide a turning point for expanding its market presence, including global advancement, as well as strengthening its metaverse technology competitiveness. Kim Se-gyu, CEO of Vive Studios, said, “We are very excited to develop metaverse technology, which is the core of the future content market, together with SK Telecom. We will create an attractive metaverse world where people from all over the world can freely communicate and enjoy entertainment.”

Jeon Jin-soo, Head of SK Telecom’s Metaverse Company, said, “We are pleased to collaborate with Vive Studios, which has top-level CGI and immersive content capabilities based on 3D in Korea. We look forward to the synergy effects between SK Telecom’s various metaverse services and Vive Studios.”