LG Uplus to develop metaverse service for children with Witch Company

South Korea's third-largest mobile carrier LG Uplus Corp. said on Friday that it will develop a web3 service for children to provide an immersive experience jointly with Witch Company, a web3 startup. 

A web3 startup refers to a blockchain-powered enterprise that advocates for a decentralized Internet. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse are particularly popular technologies and services currently created by web3 startups.

Witch Company is a startup with technology capabilities and service experience related to the metaverse, NFT, and blockchain. It runs a metaverse service Witchworld that allows users to easily issue NFTs and display and sell them in 3D spaces. It also created such services as Witchcraft, Witchtoken, and Witchauction.

LG plans to launch a prototype Web 3.0-based kids service as early as the first quarter of next year after forming a new web3 development partnership with Witch Company. It will link the service with its own growth care platform, such as Children's Land, in the future.

Web 3.0 is a key element in the concept of "Uplus 3.0" which the mobile carrier introduced last September.

At the time, Hwang Hyeon-sik, CEO of LG Uplus picked Web 3.0 as one of the four major platforms that his company would focus on. To this end, it plans to strengthen R&D in the technology area and prepare a Web 3.0 compensation system.
 
Web 3.0 is characterized by a structure in which users receive a certain amount of compensation as much as they contribute to the platform.

"We plan to introduce a metaverse service that customers can use in their daily lives through cooperation with Witch Company," said Lee Sang-yeop, executive director of LG Uplus.

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com