SK Telecom, which is pushing for games and e-sports as its new business, will expand its business area to Asia-Pacific, including Southeast Asia. Together with its powerful allies, it will pioneer a route to spread Korean e-sports and games around the world.
SK Telecom, Singtel of Singapore, and AIS of Thailand announced on March 8 that they have signed a contract to establish a "game platform joint venture" that will promote the new business for 800 million gamers in major Asian regions.
The three companies agreed to invest the same amount, and to have one-third of their shares and rights in the joint venture. Service release is aimed at the end of this year.
The establishment of the joint venture is a follow-up to the "e-sports and game joint business" partnership signed by SK Telecom and Singtel in February last year.
SK Telecom has invited Thailand's largest telecom carrier AIS as its business partner, following Singtel, which is seeking business in 21 countries around the world, to secure new business outposts in major Asian regions.
Through the joint venture, the three companies will first push ahead with the "specialized community for gamers," a project to link e-sports, and a "game" media content business. Rather than developing the games themselves, the goal is to provide new platform services outside of the game play.
The first service to be promoted is the global gaming community. The game community is a communication space where customers actively participate based on their common interest in games, and it has been established as a killer service in the game industry.
In addition, the three companies will also cooperate in the media and entertainment sector by providing gamers with games, video clips of games played through e-sports, and game media content featuring professional gamers.