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Shinsegae, a South Korean department store franchise headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, is planning to create its own metaverse service. For this move, it has sought the assistance of Hancom, a local software developer company.
Shinsegae also revealed it has the intention of acquiring stakes in Hancom as part of its business strategy. The department store chain firm signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Hancom late last week. It was agreed that the software developer will create the metaverse platform service while Shinsegae would think up and produce different content that can be enjoyed on the metaverse.
As per Korea Joongang Daily, Hancom already created Cytown, a metaverse application for Cyworld, but this has yet to be launched. Cyworld is a Korean social network service site that was originally part of the SK communication but became an independent company in 2014.
For the latest partnership deal, Hancom will work with Shinsegae, and together they will also produce non-fungible tokens or NFTs of various products that can be traded in the virtual space.
Hancom will buy some stake in Shinsegae, but the details about this are still not clear. Then again, The Korea Economic Daily reported that an official of the company commented, "We will discuss the size and timing of investment."
In any case, before Shinsegae launches its own metaverse service, it is planning to host various events first using other metaverse applications. Starting next month, the company will be hosting a 3-week class that will teach users the basics of NFTs on ZEP, which is Naver Z's metaverse application, art history, and drawing.
"Following the partnership with Shinsegae, the metaverse will become one of Hancom's main growth engines," Hancom's chief executive officer, Kim Yeon Su, said in a statement. "We plan to provide a unique experience to users by combining Hancom's metaverse-related capabilities and Shinsegae's content power, also gaining a lead in the growing metaverse market."
Finally, it was noted that Shinsegae is investing in the metaverse as its rivals are also diving into the virtual world and have already started offering metaverse-related services. For instance, Lotte Department Store is set to sell the products being sold in its locations in the virtual world, and Shinsegae is following suit.
