Lotte Homeshopping Signs MOU with '4by4'... "Advancing Virtual Model Lucy"

Debut as a Live Commerce Host Within the Year

Lotte Homeshopping's virtual model Lucy is demonstrating a product sales broadcast on mobile TV ELIVE. (Photo by Lotte Homeshopping)

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chunhan] Lotte Homeshopping announced on the 29th that it has signed a business agreement with immersive content production company ‘4by4’ regarding the digital human commerce business.

The two companies agreed to mutually cooperate in ▲digital human content production ▲carrying out commerce business based on digital humans. Lotte Homeshopping plans to advance its self-developed virtual model ‘Lucy’ to a level capable of interactive communication and debut her as a live commerce host within this year. This will be the industry’s first broadcast where a virtual model sells products while communicating with customers in real time. To achieve this, they plan to apply the latest specialized technologies such as visual effects (VFX) and real-time engines.

After a trial broadcast of pre-recorded videos of Lucy hosting, they will proceed step-by-step towards real-time interactive broadcasts. From the 19th for one week, Lucy’s interviews with participating artists were released through an online art fair held on Mobile TV, and she also introduced the program in a new golf entertainment show produced by Lotte Homeshopping.

A Lotte Homeshopping official said, “Through an agreement with a company possessing specialized technology, we will advance technology step-by-step to enable real-time interactive communication within this year,” adding, “We will expand activities to various platforms in the future and lead the digital human business.”