SK Telecom adds ‘if home’ feature to ifland metaverse

SK Telecom announced that it added a new service named ‘if home’ to its metaverse platform ‘ifland.’

‘ifland’ is a personalized 3D virtual space that allows users to better express themselves and socialize with others in the world of metaverse.

After updating their ‘ifland’ app, users can create their ‘if home’ by selecting one of each of the four terrains and six buildings. The four terrains are forest, universe, beach and city village, and six different types of buildings include Santorini-style house, wooden house, Hanok (Traditional Korean house), Spanish-style house, cabin and modern house.

Users can then design and decorate their virtual homes according to their own personal style and taste using around 400 different items in a number of categories such as wall-paper, flooring, furniture, home appliances and props.

They can also share their daily lives, thoughts and interests by posting/displaying their messages, photos and videos on a giant 3D ball or a frame that can be placed anywhere. Visitors to an ‘if home’ can give likes and comments on these posts and leave a footprint or a message on the guestbook. Users can easily invite guests by sending a unique URL assigned to each ‘if home.’

With friends over at their own place, users can have a great time with play items. For instance, by choosing the karaoke item, they can have fun singing their favorite songs and comparing scores with friends.

‘if home’ also provides users with the joy of meeting celebrities realized via volumetric technology. Starting with Lee Sang-hyeok (“Faker”), a professional League of Legends player for T1 Entertainment & Sports, a global e-sports company, SKT plans to create more volumetric celebrities for ‘if home’ users.

The company plans to add more terrains and buildings; more than double the number of ‘if home’ decoration items; and develop more play items/features within this year to further enhance user experience.

An economic system will also be introduced within the year. For example, 3D content like virtual decoration items and special effects, tickets for diverse events, and rare NFT could be sold in ‘ifland.’

‘if home’ can accommodate up to 31 users. For those who need a larger space for gatherings, ‘ifland’ provides ‘if square,’ which was formerly named ‘land.’ ‘if square’ can hold up to 131 users at the same time, which makes it ideal for large-scale events like lectures, performances and concerts.

Although the ‘ifland’ app is offered in two different versions – the Korean version and Global Version – ‘if home’ is operated in an integrated manner, meaning that global users can visit ‘if home’ of Korean users, and vice versa.

With the addition of the German language, ‘ifland’ now supports five different languages, namely Korean, English, Chinese (Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese), Japanese and German.

‘ifland’ will also unveil special ‘if home’ for companies that want to better communicate with customers as well as celebrities looking for new ways to reach out to their fans.

For instance, T1’s ‘if home’ will be created to provide fans with past game videos, photos, and schedule. ‘K POP Show,’ a metaverse fan meeting program of K-pop stars, will also open its ‘if home’ to share video and photos, and hold special events.

Many different brands including 7-Eleven are also planning to use ‘if home’ as a 3D virtual store to launch various promotional events.

SKT expects that ‘ifland’ users would be able to experience a new form of communication in the metaverse by going back and forth between ‘if home’, ‘if square’ and special ‘if home’.

“With the introduction of ‘if home,’ ifland takes social networking to the next level by allowing users to design and decorate their own space, and share their interests and daily experiences with others in the metaverse,” said Yang Maeng-seog, Head of Metaverse CO at SKT. “We will continue to enhance user experience by upgrading ifland’s service features and content, and introducing the economic system.”

CT Bureau