Netflix held a press conference on the 4th and expressed its position on the controversy over network usage fees. Netflix reiterated its previous position to focus on reducing traffic through ‘Open Connect’. Instead of paying a monetary fee, Netflix is currently suing SK Broadband for a technical problem.

Netflix, which is in conflict with ISPs (domestic Internet service providers) over network usage fees, said it will focus on ways to reduce traffic through “Open Connect.” This is a repeat of Netflix’s existing position that it will contribute to network usage fees in a technical manner instead of paying economic costs.

OCA reduces traffic by at least 95%…Repeat “Technical Solution”

Dean Garfield, vice president of policy at Netflix, held a press conference in Dongdaemun Square Seoul, Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 4th and said, “We will cooperate with ISPs in a way that effectively provides Netflix streaming but does not burden the network.”

“We have invested as much as 1 trillion won so far to create OCA (Open Connect Alliance), our own CDN (content transmission network),” he said. “Through this, we have reduced network traffic from at least 95% to up to 100%. Over the past year, ISPs around the world have saved 1.41 trillion won through OCA, it added.

OCA is a technology developed by Netflix 10 years ago and can be called its own CDN. Netflix claims that using OCA, data is delivered directly to the ISP, so there is no relay access fee. In addition, it can be installed anywhere inside the ISP network, so there is no additional cost even if the content is received from a long distance.

Dean Garfield, vice president of policy at Netflix, is hosting a “Netflix Media Open Talk” on the 4th at JW Marriott Dongdaemun Square Seoul. “Most Internet users in Korea pay Internet usage fees based on 200MB per second,” said Vice President of Netflix, adding, “If you use OCA, the traffic caused by Netflix users is 3.2MB per second even at peak time.” Even assuming the most traffic, Netflix accounts for 2% of the average Internet fee.

Vice President Dean also stressed that in addition to OCA, additional technologies are being developed to establish a stable traffic environment. Typical examples are the ability to encode the same video file into multiple versions according to the bandwidth of various viewing environments, and the method of delivering videos of the same quality through less and less bandwidth by improving the compression method.

“I’m not paying any network usage fees.””OCA is an ISP’s choice”

As Netflix repeated its existing position to bypass the network usage fee problem due to technical problems, questions continued at the press conference on Netflix’s position on the payment of network usage fees and reverse discrimination issues.

Asked about the discrimination issue, saying Netflix does not pay network usage fees to overseas ISPs and does not pay network usage fees to Korea, Vice President Dean said, “We are building commercial partnerships based on marketing or financial transactions on set-top boxes.”

Also, it is not true (to pay for the network usage fee). I don’t talk about things that aren’t true in public, he said. “If there is an ISP who receives network usage fees, wouldn’t you show up?”

When it was pointed out that Disney, which is planning to release Disney Plus in the domestic market, and Apple, which released Apple TV+, are paying the cost to CDN, some CPs use CDN to provide content. However, Netflix’s position is a little different.

“Netflix has created its own CDN, OpenConnect, in order to create an ecosystem called the Internet,” he said. “Disney and Apple each made the most reasonable choice for their companies.”

“Each ISP can choose whether to use open connect or not,” he said. “Netflix continues to innovate while providing information and insights.” We are waiting for the ISP to choose open connect,” he added.

SKB and lawsuit, KCC’s “passing” isn’t it…”Hope to cooperate”

Dean also mentioned the ongoing trial of network usage fees with SK Broadband. Netflix is suing SK Broadband for refusing to pay network usage fees. Although it recently lost the first trial, Netflix filed an appeal against SK Broadband and the second trial is underway.

“Netflix wants to cooperate with all Korean ISPs, and SK Broadband is included here,” Vice President Dean said. “I want to sit down and discuss with SK Broadband for co-prosperity.”

“We respect Korea’s legislation and justice,” he said, adding, “Each country has no intention of using procedures in an advantageous way to abuse something unclear.”

SK Broadband originally filed a financial application with the Korea Communications Commission to mediate negotiations on network usage fees. However, Netflix rejected this and took legal steps, sparking controversy over KCC passing.

However, he said, “There is no law on network usage fees in Korea. “It’s like that all over the world,” he said, adding, “We’ll follow the trial process well, adding.

Finally, Vice President Dean said, “I deeply sympathize with the importance of accompanying Korean creative ecosystems as well as various domestic partners,” adding, “Netflix will continue to work with ISPs and other related industrial ecosystem partners to provide the best consumer experience.”

Source: www.nocutnews.co.kr

Although Bitcoin is known, not many people even know blockchain. Although it is not receiving much attention due to Bitcoin, the most important thing in virtual assets is the blockchain, the technology on which it is based. It is time to pay more attention to how blockchain technology will change our daily lives and investment environment.

Jung Gu-tae, director of Cardo, a virtual asset custody (storage and management) company, recently appeared on the YouTube channel “Bukkumi-Ant Dreaming of Rich” specializing in Money Today Securities and stressed, “Digital assets are essential in the digital era.”

Director Chung said, “In addition to cash, various assets such as real estate, gold, and art are digitized through blockchain, and among them, there will definitely be successful cases,” adding, “This is why we should pay attention to this growing market.”

The Future of Blockchain…’Digitalize’ All Assets

Q. There are various terms such as cryptocurrency and virtual assets for various digitally implemented assets. Is there a reason why the director defined these assets as “digital assets”?

▶ Digital assets are used in a wide variety of areas, not just ‘coin’. Since there are various fields such as DPI (blockchain-based financial system), STO (securities-type token), and NFT (non-replaceable token), it should not be defined only as “currency,” but it is also difficult to define as “virtual” in that transactions are clearly taking place in the real economy. I think it’s more appropriate to describe it as a ‘digital asset’ in a sense that encompasses many different concepts.

Q. People know a lot about Bitcoin, but they often don’t know blockchain well.

The ▶ blockchain is a chain of data called ‘block’. As a result, it is very difficult to hack or falsify from outside. Now, blockchain is often only interested in ‘coin’ or technology, and in fact, it is necessary to pay more attention to how this technology can be applied and commercialized in reality than to technology itself.

Bitcoin, the representative assets that made the technology blockchain famous, and Ethereum, for example, the beginning of Bitcoin was aimed at revitalizing sign-to-sign transactions that excluded central institutions like banks. Bitcoin was created to create a payment system that allows individuals to trade with individuals. On the other hand, Ethereum has a strong characteristic of the blockchain platform. In the blockchain platform that provides Ethereum as a reward, it can be applied in various forms such as Diffie, STO, and NFT.

Q. These days, blockchain technology allows you to trade various assets such as real estate and art. How is that possible?

▶The asset securitization STO is the digitization of real assets. It was issued in the form of securities by splitting the stake in assets worth hundreds of millions and billions of won. In this way, expensive buildings or artworks can be invested in small amounts of 5,000 won to 10,000 won. With STO, all assets can be liquidated. Currently, there are companies that support real estate sales using blockchain overseas. In Korea, fintech startups are also attempting to trade real estate tokens.

Q. Recently, NFT technology has become a hot topic, so what kind of technology is it and how is it being used?

▶Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is literally an ‘irreplaceable token’. Bitcoin, for example, has the same value as the one bitcoin I have and the one bitcoin that someone else has. However, NFT has the characteristic that it is unique because each token is different.

NFT can be used in many fields. Recently, there was a case where Lee Se-dol’s 9-dan and AlphaGo’s NFT was sold for 250 million won. Hunminjeongeum Haeryeok is also sold in NFT. NFT is still in the beginning stage, and we expect it to be used in various fields such as game items and metaverse in the future.

Q. Some point out that the entire digital asset market, including Bitcoin, is a bubble.

▶ Bubble is a very relative concept. When we look back at the past over time, we can judge whether it was a bubble or not, but we don’t know if it’s a bubble in the current state. The important thing is not the present, but how this technology can be used and what value it can be given in the future. In this digital age, all assets can be digitized, and if we are confident that digital assets can be used extensively in our real lives in the future, we can invest in them.

Source: news.mt.co.kr

K-pop on the metaverse
Expect platforms that will surpass SNS…We’re going to pick a new land of opportunity
Expectation of synergy by combining games and advertisements to provide personalized content for fans

1. Four idol groups come out as avatars, dance in a virtual space, take selfies with fans, and give out autographs.

2. Seven idol groups will release the music video of the choreography version for the first time in the world in a virtual space. When I buy an idol choreography, my avatar dances like an idol.

If you think of it as a novel or science fiction movie scene depicting the upcoming future, you should read this article to the end. The example above is not an imagination of the future, but a story of what has already happened. It all happened on the Metabus.

Metabus is a combination of ‘meta’, which means virtual and transcendent, and ‘universe’, which means the world, and refers to the virtual world. It was first introduced in 1992 in the novel “Snow Crash,” written by American novelist Neil Stevenson. In the novel, the characters can enter the virtual world ‘metabus’ only by borrowing a virtual body called ‘Avatar’.

The first group is BLACKPINK. In September last year, he came out as a 3D avatar on Naver’s Metabus platform Geppetto and held a fan signing event. Did people come to see an avatar that wasn’t real? As many as 46 million people visited the fan signing event as avatars during the full-day event.

Group 2 is BTS (BTS). In September last year, the music video for the choreography version of the new song “Dynamite” was released for the first time in the world in the metaverse game “Fortnite.” 2.7 million people around the world watched this.

K-pop is permeating the metaverse world in various ways. Lee Soo-man, general producer of SM Entertainment, announced his vision in June and introduced Espa, an idol group active in the metaverse world. Espa is a group that combines four real members and their four avatars. Members work with another self, Avatar. In the music video, members and avatars appear together to dance or sing. They also participate in fan meetings and concerts.

Virtual singers based on artificial intelligence (AI) technology also came out. 3D rabbit artist Apoki released his first single ‘Get It Out’ in February. The relay dance video of the song (dancing in different order for each part of the song) received 1 million views a week after it was released. YouTube subscribers reach 300,000 and TikTok followers, a short form video service, reach 2.4 million.

Why are K-pop singers on the metaverse like this? The COVID-19 incident affected. With the offline performance stage gradually decreasing due to COVID-19, people want to see the performance even online. Singers who want to be on stage and audiences who want to see them meet in the metaverse space.

Hankyoreh
Virtual character singer Apoki (second right). Apoki’s Instagram

Another reason is that Metabus is expected to grow into a next-generation platform that goes beyond social networking service (SNS) platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. K-pop singers mainly worked on the SNS platform, attracting fans from all over the world. This is why they are actively trying to preoccupy metaverse, which is expected to be a land of new opportunities in the future.

Kim Sang-kyun, an industrial engineering professor at Kangwon National University, a metaverse expert, said, “Entertainment companies are trying to use metaverse as a platform to create new content. On Metabus, K-pop singers can diversify their content. You can transform a song into a dance or a game. It can also be used as a space to communicate with fans.

Metabus is also a good container for K-pop singers’ worldviews. Kim Young-dae, a music critic, said, “K-pop idols have received responses that characters that exist in cartoons and animations seem to have been actually implemented before. They are made up of members with different looks and abilities, and are also given new personalities with mythical and fictional worldviews. In other words, the real person represents a virtual world view. The worldview embodied by K-pop idols can be expanded indefinitely without any limitations in metaverse, he said.

It can also provide personalized content to fans beyond time and space. It is impossible for BLACKPINK to sign for 46 million fans offline for 15 days, but as it is possible on Metabus. In addition, Metabus creates numerous contents and synergy such as games and advertisements, and through this, it is possible to pioneer new business models.

Hankyoreh
BTS’s “Fortnite” performance screen. YouTube, Galmuri

The metaverse target class is the MZ generation (the generation born in the early 1980s and 2000s). It is a class that mainly uses metaverse. Macroscopically, they are struggling with job shortages and are upset by soaring housing prices. They want to escape this reality and achieve vicarious satisfaction in the virtual world. Microscopically, they enjoy living in a different “sub-character” (shortened for a sub-character, which refers to a new appearance or character that is not what they usually, they enjoy living in a different way.

Wi Jung-hyun, a business professor at Chung-Ang University, said, “The so-called ‘386 generation’ and ‘X generation’ are unfamiliar with the separation of reality and virtual self, but the MJ generation tends to think that characters don’t have to be the same as themselves,” adding, “MJet generation is gaining popularity.”

How long can the popularity in the metaverse continue? There is also an opinion that it is a moment. Adam, the nation’s No. 1 cyber singer who appeared in January 1998, did so. It gained popularity by selling 200,000 albums containing the title song “Love that is not in the world,” but it did not last long. After that, I had to go down from the stage because I was forgotten by people.

So, how can I keep running on the metaverse? If you just stop with something new or novel, your popularity also stops. You need to breathe life into it to last long. In order to form a new fandom on the metaverse, the character must have its own unique charm and personality.

Producer Kim Hyung-seok, who recently introduced a metaverse-based cyber band, said, “Because it is a metaverse, it should not end with ‘fun’ and ‘wonderful’. You have to be attracted. To do this, the character must be energized. We need to find a point that is fun and touching. We need a humanities approach that explores humans, he said.

YouTube has been able to expand global fandom by K-pop singers such as BTS and Black Pink. They captivated fans around the world with their own worldview and stories in videos, not text. Attention is focusing on whether K-pop singers will continue to succeed in Metabus in the future.

Source: www.hani.co.kr