It was announced on the 13th that Lotte Homeshopping launched 'Metaverse One Team' with 13 domestic ICT companies and experts and signed a business agreement to build a metaverse platform at its headquarters in Yangpyeong-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul on the 12th.

Metaverse One Team decided to come up with a mid- to long-term strategy for establishment of a metaverse platform and to carry out advanced technology research and joint conferences. Lotte Homeshopping strategically cooperates with experts and 13 companies with innovative technologies in each field, including artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR), extended reality (XR), blockchain, non-fungible tokens (NFT), content, and cloud and it has a plan to lead the ICT technology convergence trend and seek ways to expand services.

At the signing ceremony, CEO Lee Wan-shin of Lotte Homeshopping, Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) Kim Sea-yeon of Chorokbaem Media, Vice President Seo Dong-wook of Next Entertainment World (NEW), Vice President Cho Young-guk of MEGAZONE CLOUD, CEO Lee Seong-gyu of eNgine visual wave, Vice President Seo Won-il of Skelterlabs, and Professor Emeritus Lee Soo-young of the School of Electrical Engineering of KAIST, interested people of participating companies and experts attended.

At this ceremony, Lotte Homeshopping and participating companies agreed to cooperate with each other on △ research and development of cutting-edge technology to build a metaverse platform △ strategy establishment, content planning, and technology utilization. On this day, the agreement was exceptionally issued as NFT with the symbolism of the metaverse, and the plan is to expand the participating companies in the future to promote technological advancement as well as synergy.

Lotte Homeshopping plans to open an integrated platform within the next year after establishing a consultative body within this month to build a metaverse platform and upgrading it step by step, for example, establishing a strategy and introducing new technologies. It is preparing to launch an NFT marketplace through a mobile app in April. It decided to promote the NFT business in earnest by selling NFT contents using IP (independent intellectual property rights) such as virtual models and virtual fashions in connection with physical products. Live commerce is implemented in a 3D virtual world, a meta live studio is built where products and brands can be experienced through avatars, and XR-based shopping contents are also introduced at Lotte Homeshopping's super-large shopping event, Gwangkeuljeol, scheduled for April. In October, the company plans to accelerate the strengthening of commerce media by conducting a trial run of recruitment in the metaverse and operating a metaverse exhibition hall of online export plaza for SMEs.

Jinho, head of Lotte Homeshopping's Digital Business Division, said, "As metaverse and NFT have recently emerged as new business growth engines for companies, we signed business agreements with companies with the best professional technology and research capabilities in Korea. In addition to development of digital human, block chain, and XR technology, we plan to accelerate digital transformation by promoting the metaverse service based on cutting-edge technology.”