by Neptune made an equity investment in an artificial intelligence (AI) company that nurtures K-pop digital idols. The targets are Deep Studio (CEO Ryu Ki-Hyun) and Pulse Nine (CEO Park Ji-Eun).
Deep Studio is casting in the digital and analog worlds.
Currently, there are four digital trainees and ten analog trainees. Although it has not yet debuted, the official YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok accounts operated by Deep Studio have surpassed 200,000 followers.
It is forming a global fandom to the extent that most of its followers are overseas fans in the US, Brazil, and Indonesia. In particular, digital idol trainee Jeong Se-jin has 84,000 Instagram followers and 60,000 on TikTok. An entertainment agency called ‘Deep Studio Entertainment’ is also running under its umbrella.
Pulse9, a company specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) graphics, created a digital K-pop girl group called ‘Eternity’ based on Deep Real AI technology. Deep Real AI is an AI technology that makes a live-action virtual person image and synthesizes it with a video taken directly to create content.
Eternity started its full-fledged activities by releasing the first music video, ‘I’m Real’ on the official YouTube channel in March. So far, it has reached 770,000 views and more than 10,000 comments.
Among the 11 members, Seoah, Sujin, Yeoreum, Hyejin, and Minji’s YouTube mini-interview videos each recorded more than 100,000 views, showing interest in various regions at home and abroad.
Neptune CEO Yoo Tae-woong said, “Following OnMind, which we acquired last year, we are strengthening our digital human technology capabilities, one of the cores of the metaverse era, through this investment in Deep Studio and Pulse9, while also cooperating in fostering virtual idol groups from both companies to foster world-class K-pop groups. We will make new attempts to join the craze.”
