HIKKY reached its 5th anniversary since its incorporation.
Our exhibition event in the virtual space, the Virtual Market, is going to reach its 10th round this summer.

With the vision of developing and enriching the virtual space, HIKKY has engaged in various new endeavors and challenges for the past 5 years.

For example, the Virtual Market started with 80 exhibitors 5 years ago, and since then expanded to become a large-scale event with more than 1,000 exhibitors, more than a million visitors from around the world, and numerous collaborations with various companies and IPs.

Still, we have a long way to reach our true destination; our dream since its inception has been to “live in the virtual world”.

While the virtual world may have become richer than 5 years ago, we are far from taking it for granted. There is no guarantee that what it is in the virtual world can persist for many years.

We believe we cannot slow down until life in the virtual world becomes an indispensable, crucial experience for many people.

Development of the Open Metaverse Until Now

We have previously stated, upon our 6.5 Billion Yen fund-raising round in November, 2021, that the primary objective of the funding is to develop an open metaverse centered around the Vket Cloud.

We have defined the open metaverse as follows:

An open metaverse where anyone can create and access freely.
It is Vket Cloud that is of core importance for achieving this vision.

What is Vket Cloud?

Vket Cloud is HIKKY’s proprietary metaverse development engine. People can develop their own metaverse worlds that are accessible from smartphones and other devices without downloading an app.

In August 2022, Vket Cloud SDK was released.

In December 2022, we have released the beta version of My Vket, a new virtual world service using Vket Cloud.

Structured around the Vket Cloud engine, My Vket is a nascent web service with avatar generator usable in other platforms and room generator, requiring no app download.

By providing easy access to the virtual world for everyone, My Vket aims to broaden the entrance to the metaverse.

Furthermore, the usage of Vket Cloud is not limited to HIKKY but to various corporations for developing their own virtual spaces.
Examples include the Virtual AKIBA World of the JR East.

Virtual Akiba World 世界初の「メタバース・ステーション」として、山手線31番目の駅として登場した「Virtual AKIBA World（バー jrakiba.vketcloud.com

Or XR World of NTT QONOQ.

As seen above, the metaverse development engine Vket Cloud let everyone have their own unique virtual spaces, leading to an ecosystem of various virtual worlds openly developed, like My Vket.

Vket Cloud is progressing right now, developing various new functions. The recently announced large-scale simultaneous connection and dynamic loading systems are also instrumental to realizing the open metaverse, achieving a large-scale multi-player experience and communication.

What we are aiming for is an open world where everyone has a metaverse space, where people can come and go freely, and where content can be developed freely.

The "open metaverse" eliminates the boundaries between the Web and the metaverse, allowing spaces seamlessly connected by a network to spread out as if they were one giant world.

VketCloud, which has been developing to make this available and accessible to everyone-

On April 20, 2023, Vket Cloud will be officially released!

What you can do with Vket Cloud after the release

<Free usage>
Vket Cloud will continue to be free for anyone to use.

Of course, just because it's free doesn't limit its creative capabilities. You can also create mini games using beautiful particles, gimmicks, and C#-like original scripts.

You will also be able to create multiple worlds. Use your imagination to create your own original web metaverse.

< Commercial use is permitted>
You can post and share a  link via social media to the created world, place your own 3D model, and guide it to an external sales site.

If you are a company, you can place images and materials in the same way as your company's website, you can use your own microphone to converse with others while showing them to visitors in the metaverse.

<Collaboration with ChatGPT! ! ＞

Experimental function to link with ChatGPT will be introduced, a hot topic right now! In the worlds created with Vket Cloud, you will be able to set up AI characters that can communicate via text chat using ChatGPT.

For example, in the near future, by incorporating AI, we will be freed from the trouble of thinking and collecting information. You can have an AI assistant specialized in fashion and events in the virtual space assist you with things like “What kind of event should I go to today?'' and “What kind of avatar should I go with?''

It may be possible to open a shop with an AI character as a cast. What kind of experience would you have at a store where AI serves customers? (It may be “entertainment”)

Alternatively, AI may live in the metaverse space for you. "You" will continue to be effectively present even while you are not there... What will happen while you are away?

In addition, you may be able to have NPCs automatically generated by AI that have learned your interests and point of view. We hope to be able to add even more depth to the world production.

We plan to implement an AI that learns according to the instructions of the world creator and a speech system. Please stay tuned for future updates regarding these features.

<You can have an original website dedicated to the creator>
If you create a world with Vket Cloud, you can create a website that publishes your worlds. Just like blogs and personal websites in the past, the website that lists your worlds can serve as an advertisement for your portfolio and activities, and can be spread simply by sharing the URL.

<Link with My Vket, with a world list>

Worlds created with Vket Cloud are also listed in My Vket. Users of My Vket may drop by your world from places other than the original website.

The thrill of creating random encounters is the real fun of the metaverse. We would appreciate it if you could feel it.

. . . .

In the virtual worlds, various creators and eventers are active, new creatives are born every day, and the economy continues to grow.

However, in the face of the new technology known as the metaverse, there may be people who are interested in but are worried about taking on the challenge due to lack of specialized knowledge or familiarity with the culture. For those individuals, we would like themt to giveVket Cloud a try.

We hope that everyone will be able to demonstrate their creativity on Vket Cloud, invite more and more creators, and increase the value of creators.

Furthermore, HIKKY will accomplish...

We will create a "metaverse town" that anyone can easily visit at any time.

" metaverse City " where all kinds of people gather, accessible from any device, such as smartphones, just by clicking on a URL .

Events are held within the metaverse every week,
shops where you can buy 3D products and real products with AI as clerks,
nomad offices in the metaverse where anyone can go to work,
and you can have a pet that will be your companion in the metaverse...

We will create a new form of town where you can "play", "interact", "shop", "work" and "live" in the metaverse .

Advertisements will naturally be placed in this city if economic activity is born.
But a mere advertisement is not fun.

We would like to create new and interesting experiences by redefining advertisements themselves as new content and objects that color the city by touching, conversing, and not just simple conventional advertising..

In fact, we have already shown you a little bit of those cities. Did you notice? those are--

Vket2023 Summer browser venue have The Technokinds and Imaginesia. This year's web browser venue will be hosted in this "metaverse city".

Originally, these two cities were planned as metaverse towns, and development was steadily progressing. At this year's web browser venue, these cities will be the stage for your exhibited works.

A festival is coming to the city of virtual space, and the works of various creators are lined up.

Aren't you excited?

These cities are scheduled to be released sequentially prior to the opening of Vket2023 Summer. Please look forward to what kind of experience awaits you.

Creating more jobs in the virtual world

As the number of visitors to the metaverse increases, the economic sphere of the virtual space will further develop.

Among them, the ability, skills, and experience of "doing/being able to do something in a virtual space" may be much more valuable than we imagine as we live in a virtual space right now.

In the same way when smartphones became popular in the past, the profession of making apps was born, and in the same way that YouTube became popular and people who did something with videos became professions, everyone will be able to spend time in virtual spaces. When that happens, countless “occupations that do ◯◯ in the virtual space” will be created, and you will be able to live in the metaverse.

In order to realize such a future, we launched the skill market "VATAR" specialized in virtual space.

VATAR will focus on "avatar modification" as the first step. However, in the future, we would like many creators, eventers, and performers in other fields that have not yet found their calling and try to become "professional" in their own way through the metaverse we are creating.

We're currently in the trial and error phase. We will continue to add more options to live in the metaverse as we progress.

HIKKY will implement all of these within fiscal 2023

HIKKY will implement these within FY2023 and further spread the foundation of the open metaverse while alsomaking the metaverse accessible to everyone.

The Internet used to be an advanced digital network that only a limited number of people could use. However, now everyone has a smartphone, and it has become possible to pick up information on the Internet at any time, send it on SNS, and even create apps. HIKKY implements the same flow in the metaverse.

We will continue to stick to the quality of the metaverse, and promise that the experience of long-time users will be even more enjoyable. This is because we have been working on the virtual field for the past five years, and it is also our own commitment.

We will also accelerate collaboration with content and IP that exist in the real world, and create a richer world that fuses the real world with the metaverse. This is because we want the real and virtual worlds to be equally interesting.

We believe that this is possible only because HIKKY is able to work together with those who are familiar with the culture of the virtual world, and members who are well rehearsed at business within the real world.

Above all, we hope you get excited along with our ideology that you play an important role as a member of the metaverse who creates worlds with us

Five years ago today, we had the same thoughts and ideas as you, we started running with these ideas and still are. Yes, your starting point is exactly the same as ours. Thoughts and ideas are important. Your start can begin on April 20th. Would you like to join us on creating a new starting line together? We hope to see you there!

Officer comment

CVO Phio the Moving Castle

Five years have already passed since I decided in 2018 to live my life in the virtual space wearing an avatar. I started as a NEET and was blessed with the current of the times and my friends, that I am still able to continue. Compared to the early days of the virtual world, I feel that today it is easier to live in a virtual world.

HIKKY's strength is that we ourselves are the end users who live in the virtual space. We communicate what's happening in the virtual world in words and expressions to those who aren't quite there yet so they may not understand. When I used to plan events while playing VRChat I would often exclaim; "I'm going to live here!". It is similar to the relationship of President Funakoshi who put Vket on the commercial track.
Dig deeper into the culture and life of the virtual space, invent it, and improve its quality. At the same time, we will convey the possibilities and potential of virtual space to those who do not understand or know of it yet. Deepening vertically and spreading horizontally. Just deepening it won't keep it going, and just spreading it blindly won't protect its own culture. This is an important point of view as we aim to realize a richer virtual world.
　Deepen vertically and spread horizontally.
　Just deepening won't keep it going, and just spreading blindly won't protect its own culture. This is an important point of view as we aim to realize a richer virtual world.

　I would like to create a future where people will
feel more conjoined today than five years ago, more next year than last year, and more tomorrow than yesterday.

CEO Yasushi Funakoshi

The culmination of things that have fascinated my life is the virtual, and HIKKY. We meet, interact, work, and live in a virtual world that appears in anime and fantasy movies, but is also part of our daily lives. It's kind of like a dream.

When I met everyone who was living in the virtual world, I felt that the conventional wisdom was overturned. In that moment, I was convinced that all the scenes of just gathering and having fun can lead to innovation. It is still fresh in our minds that if we add a little business perspective to it, it will become an example that has a social impact unlike any other, and that it has also become economically valuable. The virtual metaverse has spread to the world in an instant, but what will happen in the future?

What HIKKY is aiming for is not the development of the latest technology itself, but the establishment of a style that makes full use of everything that exists, and if it is not available, creates it on its own and continues to realize its purpose. In recent years, AI and ChatGPT have appeared and are causing a great deal of turmoil, but employees are already using them on a daily basis and incorporating them into our services. While watching the process of unknown creations coming out into the world, I remember that time five years ago, and I can't help but feel excited.

Personally, I would like to continue working hard, taking the reward of being able to touch the process of creating something by people's ingenuity and the "brilliance" of the moment of completion. I would like to continue creating together with like-minded people, transcending the borders of companies and organizations!

Virtual Market 2024 Winter Welcome to one of the world's largest virtual events! This ma event.vket.com

My Vket （MyVket・マイブイケット） 「My Vket」はスマートフォンやPCのWebブラウザ上で誰もが気軽にアクセスできるメタバースサービスです。オリジナルの vket.com