Character Licensing Fair brings characters, metaverse platforms to southern Seoul's Coex

A VR dating service, a face-changing app and a do-it-yourself metaverse platform turned heads at the annual Character Licensing Fair that kicked off on Thursday at southern Seoul’s Coex convention hall.

Visitors take a picture in front of the Zanmang Loopy character installation at the Character Licensing Fair 2024 held at Coex, southern Seoul, on July 18. [YONHAP]

A VR dating service, a face-changing app and a do-it-yourself metaverse platform turned heads at the annual Character Licensing Fair that kicked off on Thursday at southern Seoul’s Coex convention hall, among all the cute characters from kids’ animations that also awaited visitors.

Co-organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency (Kocca), the Character Licensing Fair 2024 gathered Korea’s leading character and intellectual property (IP) companies responsible for giving birth to famed characters such as Hello Carbot, Pororo, Zanmang Loopy, Kongsuni and Secret Jouju, as well as companies from other sectors that are also making a marketing statement with their very own characters, including LG U+’s Moono, Lotte World’s Lotty and Lorry and Shinhan Bank’s Shinhan Friends.

A total of 190 companies from inside and outside Korea will take part and introduce their characters and related content to visitors. Most booths were focused on promoting their brands and characters through social media events and freebies, while up-and-coming creators brought stickers, key rings and other stationery that could be purchased on site.

While children and their parents excitedly took part in hands-on activities at their favorite character booths, catching the eyes of adult visitors was the special exhibit titled “Virtual Characters.”

A visitor tries out the VR dating service developed by Papri Studio at the Character Licensing Fair 2024, held at Coex, southern Seoul, on July 18. [YOON SO-YEON]

Visitors try out a 3-D character photo booth developed by Millennials Works at the Character Licensing Fair 2024, held at Coex, southern Seoul, on July 18. [YOON SO-YEON]

The virtual character exhibit featured local tech companies opening up a new sphere of entertainment in the digital world, namely by providing people with a chance to become a 3-D character, based on their appearance, in the online space with the help of graphics technology.

Papri Studio, for example, offered a VR dating service that made users sit down with a 3-D cat in a virtual space and have conversations without having to reveal their identities. The digital cat worked as a mediator between the two users, helping them have smooth conversations on a diverse range topics.

Another tech company, Dataking, made an online metaverse service named 360 Hexa World, which allows users to build their own metaverse world without having to download the program on their computers. Animation graphics company Millennials Works developed a photo booth that allows people to have their faces changed into four different styles of animation — ranging from Disney-style to Studio Ghibli-style — and take the printed pictures home.

“Creating a digital character that can move and talk typically costs around 13 million won ($9,415) just for one person,” said a Millennials Works official.

“But with the rising virtual character trend, we have been getting more and more requests from ordinary people who also want to get themselves a virtual character. So, we want to reach out to the general public and their wish to become digital characters, starting with this photo booth.”

Members of girl group tripleS, the honorary ambassador of the Character Licensing Fair 2024, pose for photos with the fair's characters at Coex, southern Seoul, on July 18. [KOCCA]

The K-pop exhibit at the Character Licensing Fair 2024, held at Coex, southern Seoul, on July 18 [KOCCA]

Another special exhibit focused on K-pop merchandise. Signed photographs and goods from various K-pop artists were on display, along with decades-old printers that were used to make the first generation of goods for the pop music genre.

Twelve members of 24-member girl group TripleS took part in the opening ceremony of the fair on Thursday morning, along with child YouTuber Cha Noeul and Kocca president Jo Hyun-rae. A two-day conference featuring experts from the story and IP industry also started on Thursday.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]