Lotte, Shinsegae to compete in NFT market

Pink-colored bear character Belly Gom's gigantic sculpture is installed in front of Lotte World Tower in Seoul, on April 23. Courtesy of Lotte Homeshopping

By Kim Jae-heun

Korea's two largest retailers Lotte and Shinsegae are competing in the non-fungible token (NFT) market by introducing their own bear characters, according to company officials Tuesday. This is seen as a step toward ultimately building a metaverse platform where they will attract customers to shop in the three-dimensional (3D) virtual world.

Lotte Homeshopping opened an NFT marketplace called NFT SHOP on Monday and started selling the NFT of its pink-colored bear character "Belly Gom." There have been several cases where local crypto exchanges have introduced NFT markets, but it is the first that a retailer has opened one.

Lotte Homeshopping will make a 60-second video of 3D Belly Gom NFTs and sell a limited number of 300 for 60,000 won ($47.36) each. Lotte is also planning to introduce various NFTs of its virtual model Lucy in the near future.

"Following the introduction of our virtual model Lucy last year, we have opened our NFT SHOP with an aim to launch a metaverse platform ultimately. We are upgrading our metaverse business stage-by-stage," a Lotte Homeshopping official said. "We have also formed a business partnership with Doonamu's subsidiary Lambda 256 to enable the second trading of our NFTs at Open Sea, the world's largest NFT market, within this year," the official added.

Shinsegae's bear character Puuvilla is seen dressed in various styles on its NFT website / Courtesy of Shinsegae

Shinsegae will also mint 10,000 NFTs of its bear character Puuvilla starting from June 10. Minting is the process of generating a new coin or token by authenticating data, creating new blocks and recording the information onto the blockchain. The retailer said Puuvilla is the first Picture For Profile (PFP) NFT created by a local conglomerate, which can be used on social media platforms and in online communities.

Shinsegae signed a business agreement with the local NFT brand Meta Kongz on April 22 to trade its NFTs on its future metaverse platform business.

"Metaverse will be our next new growth engine. For now, we are preparing various benefits for those who purchased Puuvilla NFTs, which can also be used at our department stores," a Shinsegae official said.

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