Bright Sinchon Branch Surpasses 18,000 Visitors in 4 Months Since Opening
It will contribute to the revitalization of the VR ecosystem through the opening of additional company-managed stores and the expansion of franchise businesses in the future.

KT and GS Retail will open the second urban VR theme park, 'VRIGHT Konkuk Univ. Station,' in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, on June 30.

Bright is an urban VR theme park that combines KT’s ICT capabilities, including 5G networks, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR), with GS Retail’s know-how in offline space operation and retail business. KT and GS Retail jointly invested in the project and opened its first location in Sinchon, Seoul, on March 1, 2018.

As of the end of June, the Bright Sinchon branch has surpassed 18,000 visitors, and the number of visitors in May reached 150% of that in March, showing a continuous upward trend. Taking into account the high level of interest from young people, with approximately 78.3% of total visitors being in their 20s and 30s, a second branch was opened at Konkuk University Station, a representative university district in Seoul. Bright Konkuk Univ. Station branch has selected and implemented attractions and VR room content that were highly popular at the Sinchon branch. In particular, 'Special Force VR: UNIVERSAL WAR,' which established itself as a flagship title at the Sinchon Bright branch by recording full pre-reservations every weekend, now features added mission stages to provide both fun and visual entertainment. In addition, more than 30 new types of content have been added through partnerships with PC game developer Smilegate and VR sports game developer Appnori.

KT announced that a survey conducted last May targeting 300 customers visiting the Bright Sinchon branch showed a high satisfaction rate of 88.7%. In particular, approximately 79.3% of the total surveyed customers indicated an intention to revisit, raising expectations that Bright is establishing itself as a continuous space for play and relaxation rather than a one-time experience.

KT and GS Retail will hold an experience event for one week starting from the opening day, June 30, for pre-selected customers, including university student experience groups and the Korea Association of Tourist Interpreters. General customers wishing to visit the Bright Konkuk Univ. Station branch can visit from 12:00 PM on July 6 to enjoy the immersive media facilities.

Ko Yun-jeon, Senior Vice President and Head of KT’s Future Business Development Group, stated, “We will foster an environment of mutual growth with small and medium-sized enterprises, including content producers, simulator manufacturers, and VR companies, and expand the scale of KT’s immersive media business and increase the overall size of the market by proactively promoting various commercially viable services, such as AR, following VR services.”

Meanwhile, KT plans to open additional VRIGHT directly managed stores by the end of the year and refine business models targeting self-employed individuals, such as sharing KT's VR platform and content at reasonable prices, before expanding into a franchise business starting next year. Through this, the company stated that it will take the lead in revitalizing the ecosystem to achieve 100 billion won in annual revenue in the VR business sector by 2020 and help the domestic immersive media market grow to a scale of 1 trillion won.