Lotte Home Shopping to unveil Bellygom game

South Korea's Lotte Home Shopping announced on Monday that it will release a mobile game called Bellygom Match Land, leveraging the intellectual property (IP) of its teddy bear character Bellygom.

Bellygom Match Land is a puzzle game popular among people in their teens to thirties, who make up over 70% of its social media followers.

The game revolves around the story of rebuilding an amusement park called Belly Land, which had closed due to a lack of visitors.

The game will be launched in the UK next month, followed by Thailand and Indonesia, before its official South Korea's launch in September. It is also scheduled to enter Japan, Europe, and North America.

Lotte Home Shopping emphasized that it's the first retail company to enter the gaming market using character IP.

The company plans to strengthen its IP competitiveness and expand its content business by establishing a Bellygom experiential complex retail facility at Lotte World Adventure within this year.

Bellygom, a pink bear character developed by Lotte Home Shopping in 2018, has gained considerable popularity, boasting over 1.7 million social media followers and more than 100 different merchandise items.

The accumulated revenue from the IP business has exceeded 20 billion won ($14.5 million).

Lotte Home Shopping expects related revenue to increase by 20% this year compared to last year.

Write to Ji-Yoon Yang at yang@hankyung.com