SK Telecom CEO Park Jung-ho on Monday proposed a technology-driven entertainment project for growth of Asia’s culture and economy at the Culture Innovation Summit during the ASEAN-Korea Summit in Busan.

The head of Korea’s No. 1 telecom company suggested creating an association for the content industry across Asia, which he named “TEAM” to stand for “tech-driven entertainment for Asian movement.”

“Korea is the third-largest content exporter after the United States and United Kingdom,” Park said. “Considering that the Korean Wave is built based on Asia’s cultural aspects, if all Asian countries cooperate, we can create the so-called ‘Asian Movement’ that will surpass the Korean Wave.” 

As part of the TEAM project, Park asked to build Asia Contents Studio, an entity that will support capital investments, technological collaborations and talent exchanges while nurturing production capabilities.

“Among others, the most important thing in the media industry is cultural identity,” Park said. “Based on their own DNA, Asian countries could work together to create content that would be empathized by the world.”

Park also announced his company will establish a media platform that will turn the Korean Wave into the Asian Wave, on which all the countries across the region will collaborate.

There are around 250 over-the-top media companies across Asia, and it is impossible to produce a masterpiece that conveys Asian values with the separated business entities in the single industry, he said.

“It is my honor to speak on behalf of Korea’s media and content industry in the year of 5G commercialization,” Park said.

According to the SKT CEO, 5G will bring technology-driven cultural innovation in the media content and gaming markets. 

He introduced the company’s latest Multi View technology that enables users to view their favorite members of K-pop idol groups, as an example.

When media is combined with artificial intelligence, innovation can be realized further, he said.

With SKT artificial intelligence speaker Nugu, users can buy items they instantly spot while watching a drama series.

“Also in the 5G infrastructure, augmented reality and virtual reality games are rapidly growing, while PC games are being available on mobile devices,” Park said. “Gaming will become a new media genre and be available by OTT services as well.”

“I will do my best to achieve economic and cultural growths of Asia by forging forces beyond Korea,” he said.

By Song Su-hyun  (song@heraldcorp.com)