Lotte Homeshopping's Virtual Human 'Lucy' Signs Exclusive Contract with Chorokbaem Media

Virtual human Lucy developed by Lotte Home Shopping.

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] ‘Lucy,’ a virtual human developed by Lotte Home Shopping, signed an exclusive contract as an artist affiliated with the content production company Chorokbaem Media at the company's headquarters in Jamwon-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul on the 24th.

According to Lotte Home Shopping on the 27th, the signing ceremony was attended by virtual model Lucy, Shin Sung-bin, Head of Marketing at Lotte Home Shopping, Lee Bo-hyun, Head of Media Business Division, Kim Se-yeon, Vice Chairman of Chorokbaem Media, Kim Jeong-hwan, Vice President, Hwang Won-mi, Director, and other related personnel. They jointly discussed human and material support for Lucy’s entertainer activities and campaign projects to promote her entertainer activities.

Following the contract signing, Lucy will continue her activities as an artist under Chorokbaem Media in various fields such as advertising, dramas, and broadcasting. In particular, with recent technological advancements, she now possesses a voice that sounds like a real person, and an advertisement guiding the broadcast of cable TV channel ‘K-STAR’ is scheduled to air. Various activities are planned, including direct appearances in TV dramas produced with Chorokbaem Media in the second half of the year.

Last November, Lotte Home Shopping directly invested 25 billion KRW in content production company Chorokbaem Media, securing the position of the second-largest shareholder. Following the joint production of a beauty entertainment program last month, as part of a strategic partnership, they signed an exclusive contract with virtual model Lucy as an artist affiliated with Chorokbaem Media. As companies recently select ‘virtual humans’ as exclusive models and the virtual human market is expected to grow to a scale of 17 trillion KRW this year, they plan to expand Lucy’s activities as an entertainer through the content owned by Chorokbaem Media.

Meanwhile, Lucy is a virtual human born after a one-year development period by Lotte Home Shopping’s own specialized personnel. Since February last year, she has been active as an influencer on social networking services (SNS), currently boasting about 80,000 followers. Following advertising roles for famous domestic and international F&B brands, fashion platforms, jewelry brands, and luxury exhibitions, in April she showcased digital art Lucy using 3D technology and anamorphic techniques (three-dimensional advertising expression techniques) on a large billboard near Gangnam Station, and is being utilized in various ways including non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Next month, she will be selected as the presenter for Ssangyong Motor’s sports utility vehicle (SUV) ‘Torres’ new car launch event, which made headlines by signing over 10,000 contracts in just one day of pre-orders, and will introduce the ‘Torres.’

Shin Sung-bin, Head of Marketing at Lotte Home Shopping, said, “As the virtual human market grows and Lucy becomes a hot topic, she has signed a contract as an artist affiliated with a famous domestic content production company. Utilizing the content of Chorokbaem Media, in which we secured the position of the second-largest shareholder through direct investment last year, we will expand Lucy’s entertainer activity areas and advance her into an AI-type digital human capable of interactive communication in the future.”