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| Park Sun-young, who leads Naver's live video streaming service V Live, speaks during a media conference in Seoul, Thursday. / Courtesy of Naver |
By Jun Ji-hye
Naver will nurture its live video streaming service V Live as a global entertainment platform, offering more realistic and immersive viewing experiences in the era of fifth-generation (5G) networks, the company said Thursday.
The nation's largest portal operator said V Live will accelerate its global market expansion this year, targeting Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan in particular.
Park Sun-young, who leads V Live, said during a media event in Seoul that the service has grown rapidly since it was launched four years ago, noting about 30 million users visit the platform monthly. Among them, 85 percent are not Korean.
"V Live, equipped with Naver's distinguished live video streaming technology, is a new kind of community service which satisfies users' desire to talk about their favorite stars with others," Park said.
She said V Live will target the global entertainment market with the newly launched "Fanship" platform featuring live interactive streaming and big data technology.
Fanship, a combination of the words fan and membership, offers paid services directly connecting fans around the world to the celebrities they admire.
"Through Fanship, not only stars but also any influencers who have followers are able to design their own membership and utilize accumulated data," Park said. "Based on this, V Live will create new value in the global entertainment market."
This year, V Live will enhance its presence in Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan, countries that have high smartphone penetration rates, the firm said, noting that people in those countries also have a lot of interest in celebrity content.
Jang Joon-ki, who leads technical development of V Live, said: "5G creates new possibilities. V Live will offer the most realistic and immersive viewing experiences as if users are actually in performance venues with their favorite stars."
He said V Live will live-broadcast K-pop sensation BTS's performance on June 2 at Wembley Stadium in London.
Jang said V Live will also release a virtual reality application and related content in the third quarter of the year.
