Technology Development Aiming to Provide Better Efficiency with Artificial Intelligence
Expanding Roles of Notable Figures through Virtual Human Core Technology
First Step into Metaverse Commerce with ROUNZ, an Eyeglasses Virtual Fitting Shopping Platform
Apple Selected as the Only Domestic AR Service on Official Homepage
[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] As expectations for the metaverse rise day by day, a movement to distinguish the wheat from the chaff is emerging. Concerns are growing that metaverse-related stocks have risen excessively. With the emergence of a new industry concept called the metaverse, opinions on defining related technologies are divided, making it difficult to identify beneficiary stocks. ESTsoft is producing results through artificial intelligence (AI) technology and augmented reality (AR) technology. While these are technologies that can be utilized when the metaverse world arrives, the company is focusing its development capabilities on technologies that can be applied to everyday life immediately.
According to the financial investment industry on the 27th, ESTsoft's stock price has risen 38% since the beginning of this month. As results have appeared in the new business sector that ESTsoft is promoting, the stock price is also showing an upward curve.
Not only the domestic industry but also the political sphere is actively utilizing the metaverse. The Democratic Party of Korea, considering the resurgence of COVID-19, has decided to fully introduce the three-dimensional virtual space 'metaverse' into the presidential candidate primary process. The scalability of the AI announcer, created with ESTsoft's unique virtual human technology, is increasingly likely to be utilized in the political arena as well.
The Democratic Party plans to hold various events within the metaverse, such as candidate proxy briefings, supporter meetings, and press conferences. The purpose is to overcome the limitations of non-face-to-face communication, ensure communication with the public and primary activities, highlight the human side of candidates, and provide opportunities for policy sales.
The 'Wise Candidate Life' event, running until the 8th of next month, consists of 'The Min: Policy Microphone,' where citizens propose policies and listen to candidates' opinions via video; 'The Min: Authentic Restaurants,' which films candidates sharing daily stories with acquaintances at their favorite restaurants; and 'The Min: Policy Market,' where candidates sell pledges or citizen-proposed policies through live commerce. All events are conducted online.
Earlier in April, ESTsoft introduced an AI anchor on a domestic news-specialized TV channel's regular news broadcast. By combining voice generation AI and face generation AI technologies, candidates can vividly convey pledges or opinions without standing directly in front of the camera. This is an example showing that as the metaverse becomes more active, the utilization of virtual human technology diversifies.
ESTsoft is developing an AI instructor capable of speaking like a real person and conducting various educational lectures through collaboration with Hunet. They plan to expand the use of digital humans into the edutech industry. The AI instructor is implemented to automatically produce videos that speak naturally like a human from text input alone.
On the same day, Lotte Duty Free revamped its online platform after about eight months of system development. They decided to provide a virtual fitting service for sunglasses using augmented reality (AR). This service was developed in collaboration with ESTsoft. It is a digital experience content in the Lotte Duty Free mobile app that recognizes the face through a smartphone camera and allows users to virtually try on sunglasses. Currently, over 300 products can be experienced through AR. Lotte Duty Free plans to expand this service to more product categories through collaboration with companies possessing AR technology.
Subsidiary DeepEye launched the eyewear shopping platform 'ROUNZ,' which combines AI and AR technologies. ROUNZ is the first in Korea to develop an eyewear virtual fitting service by combining deep learning-based facial recognition technology and 3D rendering technology. Its technological prowess was recognized as it was selected as Apple's representative AR service. Last year, related sales exceeded 5 billion KRW.
NH Investment & Securities pointed out ESTsoft as a company to watch if looking for AI-related investment destinations with stable business structures and financial soundness. With Maxst's listing leading to a reevaluation of AR-related companies, expectations for ESTsoft's valuation are also rising. Maxst formed an opening price twice the public offering price on its first day of listing and soared to the price limit. While the buy order volume reached 11 million shares, the trading amount was only 1.7 billion KRW. With growing expectations for further rises, the market capitalization is expected to increase further. Giant Step, which possesses virtual human technology, has a market capitalization approaching 900 billion KRW. ESTsoft's market capitalization is 190 billion KRW, leading to analysis that its technological capabilities are not fully recognized.
Researcher Kyunggeun Kang of NH Investment & Securities explained about ESTsoft, "There is a need for a fair valuation of the software and game sectors and subsidiary DeepEye, as well as a reevaluation as an AI service company," adding, "Meaningful results are being made in the new AI service business sector."
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