Are they for real? South Korean girl band offers glimpse into metaverse
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[March 14, 2023]
By Hyunsu Yim
SEOUL (Reuters) - Less than two months ago, the first music video by
South Korean girl quartet MAVE: went viral, racking up nearly 20 million
views on YouTube and setting the stage for potential global success.
At first glance, MAVE: looks like any other idolised K-pop band - except
it only exists virtually. Its four members - SIU, ZENA, TYRA and MARTY -
live in the metaverse, their songs, dances, interviews and even their
hairstyles created by web designers and artificial intelligence.
"When I first saw Mave, it was a little confusing to tell whether they
were humans or virtual characters," said Han Su-min, a 19-year-old in
Seoul. "Because I use metaverse platforms with my friends often, I feel
like I could become their fan."
The group's almost human-like avatars provide an early glimpse of how
the metaverse is likely to evolve as South Korea's entertainment and
tech industries join hands in the fledgling technology.
It also represents a serious push by tech giant Kakao Corp to become a
dominant force in entertainment. Apart from backing MAVE:, Kakao
launched a 1.25 trillion won ($960 million) tender offer last week to
buy South Korean K-pop pioneer SM Entertainment.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Mar/14/images/ads/current/llm_lda_ANIMAL_2023.png)
SM is home to popular K-pop groups such as Girls' Generation, H.O.T.,
EXO, Red Velvet, Super Junior, SHINee, NCT Dream and Aespa.
Kakao declined comment on how it would balance the demands of managing
real and virtual bands.
The company's bet on the metaverse bucks a global trend. Big tech
companies from Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc to China's Tencent
Holdings are now reining in their spending on virtual worlds to ride out
the economic downturn.
Kakao has said earlier that it has invested 12 billion won in Metaverse
Entertainment, a subsidiary it formed with gaming firm Netmarble Corp to
create MAVE:.
But the company declined to make any income forecasts from the venture.
MAVE: is an "ongoing" project to explore new business opportunities and
find ways to work around technological challenges, said Chu Ji-yeon, who
heads Metaverse Entertainment.
FOUR LANGUAGES
The concept is not new in South Korea. In 1998, virtual singer Adam was
launched, and two decades later, K-pop girl group K/DA, inspired by
characters from video game League of Legends, also made a debut. Neither
took off.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Mar/14/images/ads/current/ldn_sda_KAREN_012823.png)
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![](../images/031423PIX/ent_b.55.jpg)
Roh Shi-yong, a producer of MBC's "Show!
Music Core", speaks as virtual girl group MAVE is played in the
background during an interview with Reuters in Seoul, South Korea,
February 28, 2023. REUTERS/Kim Soo-hyeon
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Mar/14/images/ads/current/peasley_lda_051513.png) But South Korean technology has made
much progress since then in creating virtual characters. MAVE: is
more natural-looking thanks to new tools and artificial intelligence
that developers used to create facial expressions and small details
like streaks in hair, viewers say.
With the aid of an AI voice generator, its members can speak four
languages - Korean, English, French and Bahasa. But they can't speak
in response to prompts and have to rely on scripts prepared by
humans.
The group's voices heard in the debut single "Pandora" and the
choreography in the music video were created by human performers and
processed by motion capture and real-time 3D rendering technologies.
Experts say the COVID-19 pandemic aided the growth of such virtual
characters, as many K-pop companies pivoted to online content to
satiate home-bound fans.
"Fans became more used to consuming non-face-to-face content and
communication with their idol groups for nearly three years," said
Lee Jong-im, a pop culture critic who teaches at Seoul National
University. "It seems they have become more accepting of the concept
that virtual and actual idol groups can integrate."
While virtual groups like MAVE: are making headlines for their
novelty, questions remain over whether they can match the
interaction between conventional popular bands and their legions of
fans.
"Virtual idols will move exactly as they are manufactured. And
without any unpredictability, they will become something close to
video technology, not K-pop," said Lee Gyu-tag, an associate
professor of cultural studies at George Mason University Korea.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Mar/14/images/ads/current/firststatemortgage_sda_020223.png)
Yet, MAVE:'s creators and entertainment industry officials are
upbeat about its potential.
"With so many comments received from all over the world, I've
realized that viewers do want something new and that they are rather
open-minded," said Roh Shi-yong, chief producer of a weekly music
show on local TV station MBC that aired MAVE:'s performance twice.
"The metaverse era is coming."
($1 = 1,303.3300 won)
(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim; Additional reporting by Minwoo Park,
Daewoung Kim and Ju-Min Park; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Raju
Gopalakrishnan)
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