[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] Wysiwyg Studio (hereinafter Wysiwyg) announced on the 15th through a disclosure that its consolidated sales for the third quarter of this year reached 32.67 billion KRW, an increase of about 60% compared to the same period last year.
On a separate basis, sales recorded 5.76 billion KRW, an increase of about 85% compared to the same period last year, and operating loss was 1.78 billion KRW with a net loss of 990 million KRW, significantly reducing the deficit compared to the same period last year.
In the third quarter, Wysiwyg's sales showed rapid growth thanks to the expansion of sales channels in new media business areas such as immersive content. However, due to COVID-19, the progress of several ongoing projects slowed down, resulting in additional costs. The main cause of the operating loss was the CG/VFX outsourcing production costs of original content already contracted, incurred due to the establishment of production personnel infrastructure for the aggressively pursued metaverse business.
Additionally, in August, about 12 billion KRW of merger costs occurred due to the KOSDAQ listing of its subsidiary ‘NP’, which increased the net loss. However, the company explained that since this is a one-time cost, no additional expenses will occur.
A Wysiwyg official said, “Due to the impact of COVID-19, demand for non-face-to-face content production in the content industry increased, and the proportion of new media projects that are difficult to proceed with only internal infrastructure increased, leading to higher outsourcing production costs.” He added, “In the future, we plan to actively utilize internal infrastructure such as hardware, software, and research and development (R&D) to reduce outsourcing costs.”
He continued, “Following ‘NP’, which has already entered KOSDAQ, the drama production subsidiary ‘RaemongRaein’ also passed the preliminary review for KOSDAQ listing on the 28th of last month, so both value chains of new media and original content production that Wysiwyg is independently developing are progressing smoothly.” He added, “As the metaverse and transmedia business with the parent company Com2uS is in full swing, additional momentum will be generated.”
Recently, Wysiwyg has accelerated its transmedia and metaverse-related businesses as ‘Com2uS’ became its largest shareholder. On the 10th, Com2uS announced the establishment of ‘Com2Verse’, a blockchain-based ‘Metanomics’ (combination of metaverse and token economy) platform.
The all-in-one metaverse platform ‘Com2Verse’ in the form of a ‘Mirror-world’ is expected to implement various services such as work, shopping, finance and medical care, entertainment, and community very similarly to real life. Users can earn tokens (coins) as rewards through various activities within Com2Verse, and a blockchain economic ecosystem where these can be consumed again is expected to be created.
Wysiwyg will play a key role in realizing the content within this platform. Wysiwyg will lead the overall content planning and production of ‘Com2Verse’ and will also be responsible for a major part of Metanomics within the platform by NFTizing each content and digital goods.
A Wysiwyg official said, “New businesses in the metaverse field including Com2Verse and transmedia content production are being actively diversified.” He explained, “Various video contents produced by Wysiwyg, from original movies and dramas to entertainment and short-form content, can be virtualized as NFTs within the Com2Verse platform, and in the future, linked with digital commerce, creating a completely different metaverse market economy from before.”
Meanwhile, Wysiwyg is preparing to air at least four tentpole works including ‘Jaebeoljip Maknae Adeul (JTBC)’ and ‘Black’s Bride (Netflix)’ from the fourth quarter of this year through the first half of next year. It will also accelerate business diversification such as metaverse and transmedia.
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