• SK Telecom developed its own metaverse service called ifland
• It signed up millions of users in South Korea and struck metaverse services partnerships with telcos in other markets
• But the metaverse is yesterday’s news 
• SK Telecom is killing off ifland in March 2025 to focus on its AI strategy

If you’re looking for any further evidence that the metaverse bubble has burst, take a look at South Korea’s SK Telecom, which is shuttering its metaverse service, ifland, at the end of March 2025 in order to focus its efforts on AI.

SK Telecom (SKT) unveiled its metaverse platform in July 2021 with “plans to grow ifland into the representative metaverse platform in the 5G era by enhancing user convenience based on its advanced technologies and knowhow accumulated through the operation of metaverse services like ‘Social VR’ and ‘Virtual Meet-up.’” 

User engagement was positive in the initial couple of years, but the number of average monthly active users for ifland in South Korea hit a plateau in mid-2023 at 4.2 million and then started to drop – in the fourth quarter of last year the average monthly user number had dipped by 3.6 million (and SKT did not break out any cost or revenue numbers related to the service in its earnings reports).  

By that time, SKT had embarked on a wide-ranging AI programme: It unveiled its AI Pyramid strategy in late 2023, made a broad range of AI-related investments and then, earlier this month, unveiled a new corporate structure designed to “strengthen the core competitiveness of the telecommunications business”, and “increase the execution power of the AI ​​business and create tangible results” – see SK Telecom revamps for the AI era.

With the metaverse service having lost its shine and the company’s focus now squarely on its AI ambitions, SK Telecom is taking the axe to ifland and is discontinuing the service from 31 March 2025, it announced via the service’s platform and app. 

An SKT spokesperson told Business Korea: “As a global AI company, we aim to concentrate our capabilities on AI.”

While there will no doubt be some disappointed users in South Korea, there will also be questions from SKT’s international partners, as the likes of Singaporean operator Singtel, Middle Eastern telco giant e& and German giant Deutsche Telekom are amongst those that signed up for metaverse service development collaboration. SKT was still brokering ifland partnerships as recently as April this year when it announced new relationships in Malaysia and the Philippines as part of a wider ambition to achieve global leadership in the world of immersive experiences.

SKT had not responded to questions about its international metaverse strategy as this article was published. 

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV