SK Telecom steps up metaverse push with Morph Interactive purchase

SK Telecom Co., South Korea’s top mobile carrier, has made an equity investment in Morph Interactive Co., a local three-dimensional graphics company, to accelerate its metaverse push.

SK Telecom said on Wednesday it has purchased an unspecified stake in Morph Interactive to jointly develop new functions for SK’s metaverse platform ifland. The value of the deal wasn’t disclosed.

“Morph Interactive has been our key partner since the launch of ifland. With this strategic investment, our partnership in the metaverse business has been further strengthened,” said an SK Telecom official.

The signing ceremony was held on ifland, where avatars of the two companies’ executives participated.

Morph Interactive specializes in producing augmented reality, virtual reality and motion graphics services based on game developer Unity’s game engine.

The two companies plan to add new features to ifland to allow users to play games as well as create and sell in-game items, including avatar costumes, by the end of this year.

With the creation of the so-called create-to-earn (C2E) platform, SK Telecom also plans to launch a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace to allow clients to trade their creations on ifland.

Launched in July 2021, ifland is one of the two major metaverse platforms in Korea, along with Naver Corp.’s Zepeto.

SK Telecom eventually hopes to take ifland to the global market.

Write to Han-Gyeol Seon at always@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.