Metaverse, AI Chip and Quantum Cryptography
SK Telecom (SKT) aims to enter the global market with ‘Next Big Tech,’ which refers to its three key future technologies, namely metaverse, AI semiconductor and quantum cryptography.
The company disclosed its new business plan at a news conference at MWC Barcelona 2022 on Feb. 28 (local time).
SKT CEO Ryu Young-sang declared that 2022 will be the first year in which the company's ‘Next Big Tech’ makes inroads into the overseas markets.
Ryu said the company will launch its metaverse service Ifland in 80 countries this year. He said the company will consider taking over companies with metaverse technology and intellectual property rights (IP) to increase its competitiveness.
He said SKT would build its own economic system by adding blockchain-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and marketplaces as early as the second half of 2022. In addition, it plans to open up the platform to allow users to provide diverse content. He also laid out a blueprint to evolve Ifland and AI Agent into a single AIVERSE service by interconnecting content, economic system, and back-end infrastructure of the two services.
SK Telecom is also expected to promote cooperation with Samsung Electronics in the development of metaverse platform devices. Han Jong-hoe, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, met with Korean reporters at the MWC exhibition hall and announced that he was preparing a metaverse platform device. Ryu hinted at the possibility of collaboration with Samsung Electronics, saying, “There were many cases where SK Telecom became a partner when Samsung Electronics released new products.”
SKT unveiled its plans to become a global top-tier AI semiconductor company by releasing a follow-up model of its AI semiconductor Sapeon X220 late this year or early 2023. Ruyu said SKT plans to grow Sapeon into a company with cumulative sales of 2 trillion won and corporate value of 10 trillion won by 2027.
SK Telecom’s goal is to become a top global company in quantum cryptography communications as well. Since the mobile carrier acquired Swiss quantum cryptography communication company IDQ in 2018, it has secured more than 250 customers and partners, more than doubling its sales after the acquisition of IDQ.
CEO Ryu also talked about SKT’s recent rearrangement of its business into five different groups, namely Mobile & Fixed Telecommunications, Media, Enterprise, AIVERSE (AI+Universe), and Connected Intelligence, targeted at accelerating its progress in global expansion while sustaining stable growth.