[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] LG Uplus announced on the 19th that its integrated sports community platform ‘Spoky,’ launched in October last year, surpassed 5 million cumulative users within just three months of its release.
Spoky is a service that provides the latest news and popular YouTube and broadcast videos for various domestic and international leagues across sports such as baseball, soccer, basketball, volleyball, golf, and billiards. The content also supports the ‘Spoky Talk’ feature, allowing users to communicate through comments.
As of the end of December last year, Spoky recorded 5.2 million cumulative users and 11.5 million cumulative visits within three months of its launch. The number of ‘Spoky Talk’ comments also exceeded 200,000.
In particular, during the ‘2022 FIFA Qatar World Cup,’ Spoky established the ‘2022 Qatar Pavilion’ and provided free real-time broadcast services, attracting 3 million users to visit Spoky. The Korea vs. Portugal match held on December 3 saw about 300,000 users, marking the highest daily user count.
Riding on the strong response from sports fans, Spoky improved its features and enhanced convenience on the 10th by launching 24-hour broadcasting of specialized sports channels for golf, billiards, and bowling, live broadcasts of golf and billiards, and the Apple iOS version.
First, Spoky offers a 24-hour broadcasting service of IPTV sports specialty channels. The channels broadcast include the golf channels ‘JTBC Golf’ and ‘SBS Golf,’ which provide news related to domestic and international tournaments and players, lessons, and other information; ‘Billiards TV,’ which offers various programs such as billiards-related news, entertainment, and lessons; and ‘Bowling Plus,’ a 24-hour bowling specialty channel.
Additionally, by adding live broadcast functions for the recently popular billiards and golf, Spoky expanded its live sports broadcast categories to five, including the existing baseball, soccer, and volleyball. Although bowling does not have a separate live broadcast function, viewers can watch domestic and international tournament broadcasts in real time through the ‘Bowling Plus’ channel.
LG Uplus explained that this decision considered the fact that the domestic billiards population is estimated to be over 12 million and that billiards ranked second in sports TV live broadcast ratings from 2020 to 2021, following baseball, reflecting its growing popularity.
Furthermore, with the launch of the Apple iOS version app, iPhone users can download the Spoky app from the Apple App Store and use the service. Spoky also provides a web platform, allowing users to access the service without downloading a separate app.
In line with the upcoming Korean professional baseball opening season, LG Uplus plans to introduce features such as personalized game alarm settings, selection of cheering teams, and artificial intelligence (AI) match predictions within the first quarter.
Ko Gwangho, head of LG Uplus Sports Platform, said, "We will quickly identify the needs of various sports fans and introduce new services and features at the right time to achieve a higher level of customer experience innovation, as well as grow into Korea’s representative play platform."
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