Extraordinary Endeavors in Turbulent Times: Asian Innovation, Inclusion, and Impact during COVID-19

ASIA BUSINESS COUNCIL HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 6 1 Lotte Group (South Korea) Extraordinary Endeavors in Turbulent Times responsible for product selection and packaging. 13 On the other hand, delivery is handled by PLZ. 14 Another good example is Lotte On’s collaboration with beauty marketing start- up LYCL. According to an agreement signed in August 2020, LYCL will promote products sold on Lotte On’s live commerce channel on unpa.me, LYCL’s review and content platform for K-beauty products which boasts more than 1 million users. 15 Lotte On will also conduct marketing on LYCL’s Instagram influencer marketing platform palette.me. 16 The goal is to strengthen social network service (SNS) viral marketing, 17 which has only become more important during the pandemic. deMonZ x Cheetah But Lotte On’s efforts to embrace “open innovation” are not limited to working with start-ups invested by Lotte Accelerator. With executives like Choi who are focused on opportunities arising from the Fourth Industrial Revolution, perhaps it should come as no surprise that Lotte On announced a new fashion brand deMonZ on November 3, 2020, in collaboration with A.I. start-up Designovel, and with rapper Cheetah as the “project muse.” 18 This was an experiment in online trans- formation in the post-coronavirus era. While “de” comes from design, the “M” and “Z” in the brand’s name represent Millennials and Generation Z, refer- ring to young people born from the early 1980s to mid-to- late 1990s, and from the mid-to-late 1990s to early 2010s respectively. According to Choi, Lotte On hopes the brand will turn “on” the inspiration for the “MZ” generation. The team at Lotte On found a partner in Shin Ki-young, the CEO of Designovel and a Millennial himself, who founded a series of failed start-ups before launching the data- based fashion technology company. 19 In the collaboration with Lotte On, Designovel designed sweatshirts, hoodies, and jackets 20 by analyzing the global trends of street fashion with its A.I. engine, picking up products that sell well, inputting designs, and creating clothes for sale exclusively on Lotte On’s digital platform. According to media reports, the A.I. technology allows for up to 10,000 designs to be completed in just one second and is a better predictor of the popularity of the sales items than a merchandiser with 10 years of experience. 21 With executives like Choi who are focused on opportunities arising from the Fourth Industrial Revolution, perhaps it should come as no surprise that Lotte On announced a new fashion brand deMonZ... in collaboration with A.I. start-up Designovel, and with rapper Cheetah as the “project muse.”