Are they for real? South Korean girl band offers glimpse into metaverse

SM Entertainment Co

14/03/2023 05:24

By Hyunsu Yim
       SEOUL, March 14 (Reuters) - Less than two months ago,
the first music video by South Korean girl quartet MAVE: went
viral, racking up nearly 20 million views on YouTube and setting
the stage for potential global success.
    At first glance, MAVE: looks like any other idolised K-pop
band - except it only exists virtually. Its four members - SIU,
ZENA, TYRA and MARTY - live in the metaverse, their songs,
dances, interviews and even their hairstyles created by web
designers and artificial intelligence.
    "When I first saw Mave, it was a little confusing to tell
whether they were humans or virtual characters," said Han
Su-min, a 19-year-old in Seoul. "Because I use metaverse
platforms with my friends often, I feel like I could become
their fan."
    The group's almost human-like avatars provide an early
glimpse of how the metaverse is likely to evolve as South
Korea's entertainment and tech industries join hands in the
fledgling technology.
    It also represents a serious push by tech giant Kakao Corp
 035720.KS  to become a dominant force in entertainment. Apart
from backing MAVE:, Kakao launched a 1.25 trillion won ($960
million) tender offer last week to buy South Korean K-pop
pioneer SM Entertainment  041510.KQ .  
    SM is home to popular K-pop groups such as Girls'
Generation, H.O.T., EXO, Red Velvet, Super Junior, SHINee, NCT
Dream and Aespa.
    Kakao declined comment on how it would balance the demands
of managing real and virtual bands.
    The company's bet on the metaverse bucks a global trend. Big
tech companies from Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc  META.O 
to China's Tencent Holdings  0700.HK  are now reining in their
spending on virtual worlds to ride out the economic downturn.
        Kakao has said earlier that it has invested 12 billion
won in Metaverse Entertainment, a subsidiary it formed with 
gaming firm Netmarble Corp  251270.KS  to create MAVE:.
    But the company declined to make any income forecasts from
the venture.
    MAVE: is an "ongoing" project to explore new business
opportunities and find ways to work around technological
challenges, said Chu Ji-yeon, who heads Metaverse Entertainment.
     
    FOUR LANGUAGES
    The concept is not new in South Korea. In 1998, virtual
singer Adam was launched, and two decades later, K-pop girl
group K/DA, inspired by characters from video game League of
Legends, also made a debut. Neither took off.
    But South Korean technology has made much progress since
then in creating virtual characters. MAVE: is more
natural-looking thanks to new tools and artificial intelligence
that developers used to create facial expressions and small
details like streaks in hair, viewers say. 
    With the aid of an AI voice generator, its members can speak
four languages - Korean, English, French and Bahasa. But they
can't speak in response to prompts and have to rely on scripts
prepared by humans. 
    The group's voices heard in the debut single "Pandora" and
the choreography in the music video were created by human
performers and processed by motion capture and real-time 3D
rendering technologies.
    Experts say the COVID-19 pandemic aided the growth of such
virtual characters, as many K-pop companies pivoted to online
content to satiate home-bound fans. 
    "Fans became more used to consuming non-face-to-face content
and communication with their idol groups for nearly three
years," said Lee Jong-im, a pop culture critic who teaches at
Seoul National University. "It seems they have become more
accepting of the concept that virtual and actual idol groups can
integrate."
    While virtual groups like MAVE: are making headlines for
their novelty, questions remain over whether they can match the
interaction between conventional popular bands and their legions
of fans.
    "Virtual idols will move exactly as they are manufactured.
And without any unpredictability, they will become something 
close to video technology, not K-pop," said Lee Gyu-tag, an
associate professor of cultural studies at George Mason
University Korea.
    Yet, MAVE:'s creators and entertainment industry officials
are upbeat about its potential.
    "With so many comments received from all over the world,
I've realized that viewers do want something new and that they
are rather open-minded," said Roh Shi-yong, chief producer of a
weekly music show on local TV station MBC that aired MAVE:'s
performance twice.
    "The metaverse era is coming."
($1 = 1,303.3300 won)

 (Reporting by Hyunsu Yim; Additional reporting by Minwoo Park,
Daewoung Kim and Ju-Min Park; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Raju
Gopalakrishnan)
 ((Hyunsu.Yim@thomsonreuters.com;))