Lotte invites users to its metaverse platform Caliverse

Photo by MK DB

Lotte Innovate Co., a system software developer under South Korea’s Lotte Group, unveiled its hyper-realistic metaverse ecosystem, Caliverse.

Caliverse is a metaverse platform that spans an extensive virtual space of 4.4 square kilometers, where avatars that closely resemble humans can engage in various activities such as shopping and attending concerts.

Lotte Innovate unveiled details via the Caliverse website on Thursday. The platform offers major features including avatar creation support, extensive virtual space, and user-generated content creation support. Users can customize their avatars with 200 options for facial features, body type, and colors, and are provided with a space 34 times the size of Lotte World in Jamsil, southern Seoul. Due to the large space, 30 taxi stations have been placed to facilitate avatar movement.

Caliverse incorporates content and shopping aspects from the Lotte Group. Key features include virtual stores for shopping from Korea Seven, Lotte Hi-Mart, and Lotte Duty Free, as well as a performance hall accommodating 80,000 participants.

The platform is central to the experience. Lotte Innovate plans to provide UGC creation tools to foster a variety of virtual games within Caliverse, adding that users will be able to decorate their avatar’s home according to their preferences, visit or invite other users’ homes, and eventually purchase virtual land and buildings.

This marks a significant new development in the metaverse industry.

“The competitiveness of metaverse platforms lies in content and technology,” Kim Soo-jin, a global software and telecommunications researcher at Mirae Asset Securities Co., said. “Lotte’s Caliverse succeeded in realizing high-quality virtual reality and meeting three core aspects – next-generation interactive technology and resource optimization, creating a metaverse platform reminiscent of those seen in movies.” The platform will initially be available in Korean, English, and Japanese.

The metaverse platform industry, having gone through a period of rapid growth, is now in a phase of maturity.

Roblox Corp. currently holds a dominant position. It is well known for its sandbox game format that allows users to engage in free play without predefined goals, with around 79.5 million daily active users to date.

In Korea, Naver’s Zepeto, a 3D avatar-based social metaverse platform, has been prominent. The platform has grown since its launch in 2018 by allowing users to customize their avatars and build imaginative worlds, with over 400 million accumulated users, mainly in Southeast Asia and the Greater China region.

On the other hand, platforms that failed to gain popularity are winding down, such as KT Corp.’s Meta Lounge and Com2uS Corp.’s Com2verse.

The global metaverse industry is continuing to grow. According to Statista, the global metaverse market expanded from $46.1 billion in 2022 to $56.7 billion in 2023. Within the industry, e-commerce accounts for 41.3 percent and games make up 25 percent.

Only platforms that can provide both gaming experiences and transaction capabilities are likely to survive and thrive.

The Korean government is also stepping in, and enacted the Virtual Convergence Industry Promotion Act, commonly known as the Metaverse Law, in August 2024. As the metaverse is a new industry, there are often unclear legal grounds. It is uncertain, for example, whether providing medical services within the metaverse would conflict with medical device regulations. The Metaverse Law allows the Ministry of Science and ICT to request other ministries to establish temporary guidelines.

However, there are still challenges to expanding the ecosystem. If this is to be done successfully, hardware distribution and more diverse content are needed according to INF Crypto Lab Research Center.

“A complete circulation cycle for the metaverse ecosystem must be established,” it added.