South Korea’s biggest mobile carrier SK Telecom Co. (SKT) has teamed up with Singtel of Singapore and AIS of Thailand to launch a joint-venture game platform targeting 800 million gamers across Asia.

The three companies announced on Sunday that they have signed a contract to form a game platform JV with equal shares and rights. They aim to launch the entity later this year. The amount of each one’s investment was not disclosed.

The establishment of the JV is a follow-up to the e-sports and game joint business partnership signed between SK Telecom and Singtel in February last year.

The new establishment aims to provide new platform services outside of the game play rather than to develop new games, while operating businesses related to e-sports and media content.

The first service to be promoted through the JV is the global gaming community, a communication space where gamers and fans actively participate based on their common interest in games.

Another key business area is e-sports that are expected to create a 3.5 trillion won ($2.91 billion) market in 2022 with some 200 million gamers.

SK Telecom is the owner of the world’s most popular e-sports team T1 while Singtel and AIS have pushed their business boundaries further by organizing e-sports events in multiple countries.

The three companies also agreed to cooperate in the media and entertainment sector by providing customers with video clips of games played through e-sports, and game media content featuring professional gamers.

5G, AI and other advanced ICT tools will be leveraged in this cooperation among global telcos, which will bring vitality to the world economy and a solution to a fast recovery from the global crisis, said SK Telecom chief executive Park Jung-ho.

By Lee Yong-ik and Minu Kim

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]