Leading telecom companies of South Korea, Singapore and Thailand have teamed up to establish an esports joint venture targeting some 800 million Southeast Asian gamers, SK Telecom said Sunday.

Under the agreement, Korea’s SKT, Singapore’s Singtel and Thailand’s AIS will each invest an equal amount of funds and share equal rights to the joint venture, expected to launch in 2020.

The addition of AIS is the result of a follow-up to the partnership SKT and Singtel had agreed on in February 2019, according to SKT. SKT said it has secured an outpost to the Southeast Asian market through its partners, as Singtel operates in 21 nations globally, and AIS is the biggest telecom operator in Thailand.

Rather than develop games together, the joint venture will seek to expand the culture of esports-watching to the wider Asian nations through platform services incorporating gaming media contents and community platform. 

SKT CEO Park Jung-ho, Singtel CEO Chua Sock Koong and AIS CEO Somchai Lertsutiwong signed the contract via a remote telecommuting meeting -- a company first for a global contract of this scale -- out of considereation for the global spread of rampant COVID-19.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)