Cyworld coated with metaverse to Buddy Buddy… First generation SNS comeback start

Cyworld, a native social media (SNS) with 17 billion photos, 530 million MP3 files, 150 million videos, and 32 million members, is returning. We don’t just rely on’memories’. It is refurbished and presented with metaverse technology that has recently attracted attention.

Messenger Buddy Buddy, who ended the service in May 2012, also posted a notice saying “I will come back”. In the 2000s, when these services were in their heyday, as users in their teens and 20s grew up in their 30s and 40s, which are the main consumers, a’newtro’ wind is blowing on social media.

According to the industry on the 4th, Cyworld is developing and transforming a mini-homepage into a metaverse platform with the aim of reopening next month. By introducing a cryptocurrency that replaces’Dotori’, economic activity is possible within the platform. Metaverse is a compound word of’meta’ which means processing and abstraction and’universe’ which means the real world, and refers to a three-dimensional (3D) virtual world.

To this end, Cyworld Jet joined hands with FX Gear, a software company specializing in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Cyworld Jet is a company that acquired Cyworld by forming a consortium of five companies, including entertainment company Sky&M. It is not only to restore the existing web version, but to create a new mobile service. FX Gear is a company that produced’BTS Snapshot XR’, which digitally implemented BTS members with 3D technology.

Based on this, Cyworld Jet plans to introduce two types of’mini-me’, two-dimensional (2D) and 3D. 2D mini-me is the form of mini-me used in Cyworld in the past, and 3D mini-me is expected to be implemented in a new shape incorporating AR technology.

Metaverse-like elements existed in the existing Cyworld as well. First, in Cyworld, users created their own avatars and decorated their own space,’mini homepage’. In order to create a differentiated avatar and a mini homepage, you need to buy acorn, a currency commonly used in Cyworld. It is a simple structure, but it has the conditions of metaverse. ASF, a technology research group, categorizes the metaverse into four categories: the augmented reality world, the lifelogging world, the mirror world, and the virtual world. Lifelogging is an activity that records information such as people’s conversations, thoughts, and movements and reproduces them in a virtual space. It is the act of projecting one’s life into the virtual space and communicating with other users.

Buddy Buddy, once considered a’national messenger’, also announced a resurgence. Currently, on the main screen of Buddy Buddy’s official homepage, the phrase’Buddy Buddy is coming again, a shoe with wings that connects people to people’ appears. If the service resumes within this year, it will be revived after nine years.

If you click the arrow next to the phrase, you will be connected to the homepage of the game company’Wemade’. WeMade, well known for its’Legend of Mir’ series, acquired Buddy Buddy in 2008, but ended its service in 2012 due to competition from other messengers such as Nate-On, Cyworld, and KakaoTalk. In 2008, it achieved the No. 1 share of the domestic messenger market (56.21%), but disappeared after 4 years. There is also a prospect that it can be used as a target for game users. A WeMade official said, “Once we opened the Buddy Buddy homepage, we have not yet decided on the business direction such as the specific service schedule in the future.”

Reporter Kwon Yujin [email protected]