SKT Partners with CelcomDigi and Cherry for Southeast Asia Metaverse Expansion

· Korea IT Times
Kugan Thirunavakarasu, CIO of CelcomDigi Malaysia (left) and Yang Mung-seok, Head of Metaverse CO at SKT (right) signing the agreement in the virtual reality ifland. / Courtesy of SKT

SK Telecom (SKT) announced on April 4 that it has signed publishing deals with CelcomDigi Berhad (CelcomDigi), Malaysia's No. 1 telecommunications company, and Cherry, a Philippine IoT platform company, to accelerate its expansion in Southeast Asia.

Yang Mung-seok, Head of Metaverse CO at SKT, joined CelcomDigi Chief Innovation Officer Kugan Thirunavakarasu and Cherry Chief Operating Officer Michelle Marie Ngu-Cinco at the recent signing.

SKT will collaborate with CelcomDigi and Cherry to deliver a locally optimized Metaverse platform and will oversee the service across all regions globally. The partners, CelcomDigi and Cherry, will focus on local brand partnerships, localized marketing, and local first-tier customer support.

In addition, SKT will introduce AI capabilities to ifland this year. Examples include social AI agents, which are AI NPCs optimized for local languages and cultures, and 3D AI studios, which create 3D items and spaces with generative AI according to each country's culture.

Starting with Southeast Asian countries, SKT is looking for partners in the Americas and South America, focusing on the synergy between the metaverse and AI. Through this, the company plans to expand its e-franchise to a 'Global AI Metaverse' service that does not feel foreign even when accessed from countries with different environments.

In addition, SKT plans to enrich the Metaverse experience for global users by adding support languages such as Malay, Indonesian, Hindi, and Spanish in the first half of the year, and introducing a curation feature that recommends content according to customer characteristics by connection region.

"Malaysia and the Philippines are important markets for ifland's global expansion," said Yang at SKT. "We will work with local publishers and introduce AI to become a 'global AI Metaverse'."

"We look forward to working with ifland to revolutionize the metaverse industry and extend customer value with CelcomDigi's network technology and AI-powered solutions," said Kugan Thirunavakarasu, CIO of CelcomDigi.

"We are excited to work together to bring new Metaverse experiences to global users on ifland," said Michelle Marie Ngu-Cinco, COO of Cherry.