MAVE: South Korea's Virtual Music Group, Opens The Way Towards A Rapidly Growing Metaverse

MAVE action: in Yotube (photo: Screenshot of Youtube Maverick:)

JAKARTA - The virtual female music group from South Korea, MAVE: has managed to achieve global success after its first music video went viral and was watched nearly 20 million times on YouTube in less than two months.

MAVE: consists of four members, namely SIU, ZENA, TYRA, and MARTY, who live in the metaverse, where their songs, dances, interviews, and even hairstyles are made by web designers and artificial intelligence.

This group is the initial evidence of how the metaverse will most likely develop as South Korea's entertainment and technology industry joins this new technology. This is also a serious boost by technology giant Kakao Corp to become the dominant force in entertainment. In addition to supporting MAVE: Kakao launched a tender offer worth 1.25 trillion won (IDR 14.7 trillion) last week to buy South Korea's K-pop pioneer, SM Entertainment.

SM is home to popular K-pop groups such as Girls' Generation, HOT., EXO, Red Velvet, Super Junior, SHINee, NCT Dream, and Aespa. Kakao declined to comment on how they would balance demand to manage real and virtual bands.

The company's stakes on the metaverse are against global trends. Big tech companies from Meta Platforms Inc META.O to China's Tencent Holdings are now reducing their spending in the virtual world to deal with the economic downturn.

Kakao previously said that he had invested 12 billion won in Metaverse Entertainment, a subsidiary he formed with gaming company Netmarble Corp to create MAVE: however, the company refused to make an estimated revenue from the venture.

"MAVE: it's a "sustainable" project to explore new business opportunities and find ways to tackle technological challenges," said Chu Ji-yeon, who leads Metaverse Entertainment.

A virtual South Korean idol group called MAVE: has made its debut in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic that has prompted K-pop companies to move to online content. Although this concept is not new in South Korea, MAVE: attracting attention due to its more natural appearance thanks to the use of artificial intelligence and motion-capture technology and real-time 3D depictions.

Speak Indonesian

Members of this group can speak in four languages, namely Korea, English, French, and Indonesian, but they have to rely on scripts prepared by humans. The voice of the members heard in the debut single "Pandora" and the choreography in the music video was also made by humans and processed using motion capture technology and real-time 3D depiction.

Some experts say that the COVID-19 pandemic helps the growth of virtual characters like MAVE: because many K-pop companies turn to online content to satisfy fans confined at home. However, there are still questions as to whether virtual characters can match interactions between conventional popular bands and their fans.

Even so, MAVE creators: and entertainment industry officials are optimistic about its potential. "With so much comment received from around the world, I realized that viewers want something new and they tend to be open," said Roh Shi-yong, the lead producer of the weekly music show on local TV station MBC that aired MAVE performances: twice.

"The metaverse era is coming," he said.