Nexon joins ‘Metaverse Studio’ , investing 15 billion won in YG-Naver joint venture
https://www.mk.co.kr/news/it/10169170
https://kbizoom.com/yg-and-big-hits-new-joint-business-plan-bts-blackpink-txt-winner-will-hold-concerts-at-the-same-venue/
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2022/01/24/business/industry/YN-CS-YG-Entertainment-Naver/20220124151435238.html
Summary: YN Culture & Space is a company set up by YG and Naver to build Rhythm City Virtual Studios, a multi-purpose state of the art studio complex with big Korean tech companies, like Nexon Co., Ltd. is Korea’s largest gaming company, most famous for MapleStory, Wizwick Studio, a company that specializing in VFX, animation, interactive media, VR & AR and NP, a content producing company.
A 3-D rendering of the Immersive Digital Media Center (I-DMC) production studio complex set for completion in 2025 [NEXON]
Nexon joins hands with YG Entertainment and Naver to participate in the special video studio business. WYSIWYG Studio and NPI are also involved in this project, so it is evaluated that the strong players in the Korean metaverse have gathered.
In line with the rapid growth of the metaverse market, the establishment of special video studios that can produce content using augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) is rapidly increasing. According to the related industry and investment banking (IB) industry on the 2nd, YNC&S (YN Culture and Space) recently attracted an investment of 15 billion won from Nexon. YNC&S is a joint venture between YG, Naver, WYSIWYG Studio, and NP. This company was established to create a state-of-the-art video production infrastructure within the development site of Rhythm City located in Sangok-dong, Uijeongbu. The facility currently being planned by YNC&S is said to have a total floor area of 50,000 square meters, including two studios dedicated to visual effects (VFX) and three super-large studios of 3300 square meters. The total estimated project cost is about 250 billion won. It is a move aimed at the rapidly growing demand for high-budget large-scale content production centered on online video services (OTT).
In addition, the 10,000 square meter cultural park located within the Rhythm City project site will be used as a complex cultural space. Cooperation between YNC&S and local governments is expected as the space can hold music festivals or be provided as an outdoor production set for domestic and foreign content.
Working with YNC&S, WYSIWYG and NP are considered representative companies in the metaverse. The two companies are known to cooperate in technical areas such as computer graphics (CG) and visual special effects (VFX)-based original content production and virtual and extended reality (XR) content production. In August, Com2uS took over the management rights of WYSIWYG's advanced technology such as face simulation. NP, which has strong XR technology has been in the limelight after COVID, supporting XR concerts such as NCT Dream, NCT 127, Aespa, Simon Dominic, Yugyeom, and Leenalchi.
The reason why several Strategic investors (SI) participate in Rhythm City, a complex cultural convergence complex, is due to the nature of the metaverse project. A metaverse that uses online space as if it were a real three-dimensional space requires cooperation from various companies. YNC&S Virtual Studio has become competitive in securing contents ranging from YG Entertainment's K-pop to Nexon's games. WYSIWYG and NP support the source technology required for metaverse content production.
In addition to YNC&S, several large companies are entering the special video studio business, and competition is intensifying. CJ ENM plans to complete a studio center with a total of 13 buildings and a size of 210,000 square meters by early 2022 in Paju, Gyeonggi-do. CJ ENM, which recently acquired Endeavor Contents, the producer of 'La La Land', plans to use the studio to produce a number of contents to target overseas markets.
Netmarble F&C is building a VFX lab near Gwangmyeong Station with the goal of completion in the first half of this year, and SK Telecom is expanding the business scope of 'Jump Studio', a mixed reality capture studio built in 2020 with Microsoft.
VA Corporation, which is known to have been founded by Lee Sang-rok, chairman of Standarders (formerly Nerve), who sold cosmetics brand AHC for 1 trillion won also has a metaverse platform as its main business. It is known that the company is currently attracting investment with an enterprise value of 1 trillion won.
According to Immersion Research, a global market research firm, the global metaverse market is expected to reach $828.95 billion (about 987 trillion won) in 2028.
