Lotte says to become the norm in metaverse retail space

Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin is so determined to make the metaverse the group's next playing field that he recently proposed a metaverse meeting for the group's executives.

"All of you in here look young," the 67-year-old chairman's avatar said, presiding over the group's first metaverse meeting with the presidents of its units on Tuesday.

"This immersive virtual world of the metaverse is the next place we will live in before Mars. Lotte should make efforts to set the standards here."

Lotte is aiming to take the top spot in the metaverse retail space to overtake its rivals, which already got the jump on Lotte in the rapidly-growing e-commerce sector.

The retail group plans to launch its own metaverse shopping platform equipped with settlement services as early as the second quarter of this year, where consumers can purchase products through virtual shops.

"If we overcome the fear and take the lead (in the metaverse), the way we work can become the norm," said Shin in casual clothing.

Lotte is making group-wide efforts to transform into a metaverse-focused retailer. 

Last year, it acquired a domestic metaverse startup Caliverse for an undisclosed sum. The startup, now renamed Lotte Data Communication Co., is at the forefront of building the metaverse platform, where the group's retail arms -- Lotte Shopping Co., Lotte Himart and Lotte Duty Free -- will operate.

"It is meaningless to focus on short-term results. We need to build our capabilities for the future and grow new businesses and invest in them with a long-term perspective," the chairman noted.

The second son of Lotte Group's late founder Shin Kyuk-ho is a big fan of the 2018 film "Ready Player One," which depicts a world where people interact with each other as avatars in a three-dimensional virtual space.

He recently recommended the science fiction movie to his executives to improve their understanding of the metaverse.

Also known as an early adopter in South Korea of the Oculus Quest 2, the chairman gave out the virtual reality headsets created by Facebook Technologies, a division of Meta Platforms Inc., to the group companies' executives last October.

At the end of the Tuesday meeting, Shin suggested they hold a metaverse meeting at least once a month to speed up the group's transition into a metaverse platform operator, which one of the attendants said requires changes in its organizational culture and the way they communicate as well. 

Write to Han-Shin Park at phs@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article