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SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest cell operator, has determined to close down its metaverse platform “ifland” to shift focus towards synthetic intelligence (AI).
The corporate confirmed that “ifland” might be totally closed by March 31, 2025, with companies regularly being discontinued main as much as that date.
SK Telecom additionally said it would refund customers for any paid content material, together with digital gadgets like “stones” and customizations.
An official from SK Telecom defined: “We are going to additional speed up the transition to a world AI firm by using the accrued metaverse capabilities to strengthen AI competitiveness.”
To assist its AI ambitions, SK Telecom just lately invested $3 million in Twelve Labs, a startup specializing in AI video evaluation.
The closure of “ifland” comes after almost 4 years of operation, following its launch in 2021. Over this era, SK Telecom launched a number of initiatives for the platform.
In 2022, the corporate sought to broaden “ifland” globally, aiming to construct worldwide partnerships and supply localized content material.
In 2023, SK Telecom made one other push to broaden, including 16,000 new digital gadgets, integrating non-fungible tokens (NFTs) through “TopPort,” and introducing a digital foreign money known as “Stone.” Throughout the identical yr, the corporate introduced worldwide collaborations with telecom and tech giants to create tailor-made experiences.
The shutdown isn’t stunning, as different corporations have additionally scaled again their involvement within the Web3 house.
Earlier this month, Nike’s NFT studio RTFKT revealed plans to wind down operations by January 2025. Equally, Kraken plans to shut its NFT market by February 2025. Different corporations, together with Immutable, Lacoste, Reddit, Starbucks, and GameStop, have additionally made related strikes.
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