[2022 Hot IT Companies②] "75 Trillion KRW Corporate Value in 4 Years" SK Square Rides the Metaverse Wave

After the Split, First Investment Targets Are Cryptocurrency Exchanges and Virtual Human Development Companies
Waiting List Includes One Store in Early Next Year, SK Shielders, and 11st

Jung-ho Park, Vice Chairman and CEO of SK Square and Vice Chairman of SK Telecom

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] "We will quickly write a success story based on a clear identity of telecommunications and investment."

Park Jung-ho, Vice Chairman and CEO of SK Square and SK Telecom, expressed this ambition at the extraordinary general meeting held last October to decide on the corporate split. Since its official launch, SK Square has attracted attention to its future investment destinations by choosing a cryptocurrency exchange and a virtual human development company as its first investment targets.

Focus on Metaverse and Blockchain

According to industry sources on the 21st, SK Square, which was spun off from SK Telecom and reborn as an investment specialist company in the semiconductor and ICT sectors, plans to expand its business on the global stage next year, led by the metaverse and blockchain. As part of this, it made equity investments of 35% and 40% respectively in the cryptocurrency exchange Korbit and the virtual human development company Onminde after its launch. The strategy is to implement an economic system that encompasses both the virtual and real worlds by linking metaverse platforms with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and virtual asset exchanges.

The reason the company focuses on the metaverse is to keep up with domestic competitors like Naver and Kakao, as well as global IT giants such as Meta. Heo Seok-jun, Managing Director (MD, Vice President) of SK Square, recently said in an interview with Bloomberg, "We hope that all companies in our investment portfolio will have a presence in the metaverse," adding, "Customers should be able to use cryptocurrency for everything from shopping to streaming media and other transactions through metaverse communities." Vice Chairman Park has also repeatedly emphasized the importance of the metaverse as the next-generation platform.

Even before the split, SK Telecom, the existing company, had been focusing on the metaverse business as a new growth engine and continuously investing in it. SK Telecom has been paying attention to the metaverse since the mid-2010s. In 2019, it launched the metaverse platform 'Jump Virtual Meetup,' which was revamped into 'Ifland' in July this year. With the increase in non-face-to-face events due to COVID-19, Ifland has become a venue for university opening parties and new product launch briefings. Its strength lies in its capacity to accommodate up to 130 people at once, and the cumulative number of users has surpassed 3.6 million.

Subsidiaries Announce Successive IPOs

SK Telecom's metaverse platform 'Ifland'

There is also anticipation for the IPOs of unlisted subsidiaries. Starting with One Store in the first half of next year and SK Shieldus in the second half, many companies such as Wavve in 2023, 11st, and T Map Mobility in 2025 are preparing for IPOs through pre-IPO equity investments. The first, One Store, attracted 16.8 billion KRW in investment from Microsoft (MS) and Deutsche Telekom as part of a pre-IPO round in June this year.

Through this blueprint, SK Square aims to triple the value of the newly established company to 75 trillion KRW within four years. The securities industry currently estimates SK Square's net asset value at around 24 trillion KRW. However, recent stock price trends have been sluggish amid declining dividend expectations. After being listed through a split on the KOSPI market and soaring, SK Square's stock price closed at 61,000 KRW yesterday, down about 25% from the opening price of 82,000 KRW on the first trading day, November 29.

Ahn Jae-min, a researcher at NH Investment & Securities, said, "SK Square's momentum is expected to come from the IPOs of its subsidiaries and the results of its investments," adding, "SK Square will strive to grow as a company based on active portfolio management focused on investment rather than a simple holding company, and this is viewed positively."