[Special Stock] Polaris Office Evolves into NFT and Metaverse Integrated Platform with 110 Million Users... Hot NFT Craze

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyungsoo] Polaris Office is showing strong performance. The news that the quiet boom of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is spreading worldwide seems to be influencing the stock price.

At 12:02 PM on the 1st, Polaris Office was trading at 2,445 KRW, up 12.41% from the previous trading day.

Ha Daehun, a researcher at SK Securities, explained, "Facebook changed its name to Meta and officially declared its transition to a metaverse company," adding, "As part of this, it plans to operate the platform ‘Horizon Marketplace’ where digital products using NFTs can be sold."

He continued, "Barry Silbert of DCG supported the boom by posting on Twitter that he would purchase MANA, the representative metaverse game Decentraland’s token," and added, "Besides MANA, other major NFT-related cryptocurrencies like Sandbox and PlayDapp also surged."

The researcher emphasized, "The NFT market continues to grow," and noted, "Recently, Amazon announced through job postings that it is hiring experts in digital asset payments and NFTs, attracting market attention."

He said, "As the metaverse becomes full-fledged, NFTs are rapidly growing," and added, "Currently, the metaverse is the most traded sector in the NFT market." Furthermore, he analyzed, "Although the current steep price increase is concerning, if NFTs establish themselves as goods and transaction entities within the metaverse space, the utilization of the metaverse is also expected to increase."

Polaris Office is an office platform company with 110 million global subscribers. Researcher Yoo Seungjun of YuHwa Securities analyzed, "It is time to re-evaluate Polaris Office not just as a simple app developer but as an integrated platform company encompassing commerce, OTT, NFT, and the metaverse."

Researcher Yoo explained, "The number of office subscribers is steadily increasing, and new revenue is expected as commerce and OTT services are added to the office app," and added, "Cost reductions are anticipated due to large-scale restructuring of the mobile game division."

Due to COVID-19, Polaris Office’s subscribers surged and continue to grow. Polaris Office’s strength lies in its excellent document compatibility. It is compatible with MS Office, Hangul, PDF, and more. Because of this convenient compatibility, the proportion of individual users is high. Leveraging this strength, Polaris Office signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Naver to target the education market. Polaris Office will be provided to Naver Whale Book tailored for educational settings, and Naver will support with personnel and technology. By providing Polaris Office to Whale Book, increases in sales and subscriber numbers are expected.

Researcher Yoo said, "Polaris Office’s revenue model is divided roughly equally between free and paid," explaining, "The free model generates advertising revenue, and the paid model is subscription-based. As service subscribers steadily increase, sales are expected to continue growing."

He added, "The office app will evolve into an integrated platform including shopping malls, OTT, NFT, and the metaverse," and predicted, "Using its 110 million users, various business models will be combined, leading to growth as an integrated platform company."

According to Researcher Yoo, Polaris Office will add menus like KakaoTalk messenger within the app to introduce new services. Commerce and OTT services will be launched first. Mobile shopping will become possible within Polaris Office, and users will be able to watch digital content videos. The company is collaborating with commerce and digital content partners, with services planned for the fourth quarter. Furthermore, it plans to expand platform business into NFT trading and metaverse office in the future.

He forecasted, "From this month, OTT and shopping malls will be added to the Polaris Office platform," and "Revenue increases are expected through collaboration with Naver." He also anticipated that with the current preparation of NFT platforms and metaverse business, Polaris Office will enter a full-fledged growth trajectory.