DANSTRUCT Leads the Digital Transformation of Dance… "Our Goal Is to Become a Comprehensive Entertainment Company for the Dance Industry"

– Restructuring the business into a choreography data distribution solution in the media… Converting dance into 3D motion data through ‘XSTAGE’
– Differentiation through K-POP choreography IP
KAIST and choreography similarity determination technology and choreography generation AI development…Establishment of a dance copyright protection system

Dance content is spreading globally alongside K-pop. However, choreographers find it difficult to monetize their dance creations. While music generates revenue globally through streaming platforms, dance remains stuck in the analog realm.

One startup leading this digital transformation of the dance industry is DANSTRUCT. Starting out as a dance media company, DANSTRUCT now focuses on technology that converts dance into 3D motion data. Through its platform, XSTAGE, DANSTRUCT digitizes choreographers' dances and supplies them to various 3D markets, including gaming, the metaverse, and video game YouTubers.

We met with DANSTRUCT Co-CEO Hye-rin Yoon to learn about the new possibilities brought about by the digital transformation of dance, technological solutions for protecting choreography copyrights, and plans to build a dance industry ecosystem.

Restructuring the business to focus on choreography data distribution solutions in the media.

DANSTRUCT originally began as a dance media content business. After creating YouTube content with dancers and discovering the potential of dance IP, they explored ways to transform it into high-value-added products, ultimately launching a choreography data distribution business.

"Until last year, our media business unit accounted for about 70% of our revenue. However, it was difficult to run both businesses simultaneously, so we decided to prioritize our efforts. We are currently focusing solely on new businesses, and we plan to relaunch the media business once our solutions stabilize."

Currently, 'XSTAGE', the core service of 'DANSTRUCT', is a platform that converts dancers' dances into 3D motion data using motion capture technology and supplies this to 3D markets such as games, metaverse, and virtual YouTubers. 'XSTAGE' means an unknown virtual stage, and it serves as a bridgehead for transferring dancers' dances into the digital space.

Differentiate yourself from global competitors with K-POP IP.

The biggest differentiator of 'XSTAGE' is that it quickly supplies popular IPs such as K-POP and dance challenges. While global competitor Adobe's Mixamo only provides common movements such as walking and shooting, 'DANSTRUCT' provides trendy dance IPs, contributing to the promotion of game companies and metaverse companies and improving user immersion.

The effectiveness of this differentiation strategy was recently demonstrated in the case of "K-POP Demon Hunters." Data-driven analysis of this globally popular choreography resulted in a 10,000% increase in membership signups in just one week. This success led to $30,000 in revenue as of the end of last year, despite no marketing efforts. Currently, 80% of users are international. "DANSTRUCT" is currently exploring its potential in the virtual YouTuber market.

Technical solutions for protecting choreography copyrights

Another reason "DANSTRUCT" is attracting attention is its choreography copyright protection technology. With the recent rise in interest in dance through programs like SUPPA, cases of choreographers failing to profit from their creations have been highlighted, highlighting the importance of choreography copyright.

"By digitizing dance into 3D data, we can accurately record the dances that change with each performance. Just as music is digitally fixed and tracked on YouTube, fixing dances in 3D data format allows for similarity analysis and tracking of choreography data."

DANSTRUCT is currently developing similarity detection technology in collaboration with KAIST. Furthermore, they are building a system that will allow choreographer information to be registered as metadata when motion data is uploaded to the store. This will enable tracking of who created the motion, how many times it was sold, and how much should be paid when the motion data is used in various environments.

Last year, the Korea Choreography Copyright Association (KCCA) was launched. Working with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Copyright Commission, the association is striving to establish a structure that fosters mutual growth within the entertainment industry. To this end, the association is gathering industry input through the Choreography Copyright Society, and DANSTRUCT continues to participate in the society. Last year, the association signed an MOU to establish a copyright management and distribution system for the KCCA.

Build your industry network with the Coreo Awards

DANSTRUCT is committed to developing technology and building a community of dancers and choreographers. Last year, it proposed and co-hosted the Choreo Awards, Korea's first pop culture choreography awards, with the Korea Choreography Copyright Association (KCCA) and 1MILLION.

"Around 100 of Korea's top K-pop choreographers gathered. Just bringing 100 choreographers together was considered a miracle. We're also preparing for the second Choreo Awards this year. Our goal is to expand the Choreo Awards into Korea's largest dance festival within three years, creating a platform for diverse stakeholders in the industry to celebrate and connect with one another."

The purpose of this event is to raise awareness of choreography copyright and recognize the contributions of creators. The dance industry lacks a management system to manage artists' creative work, often leading dancers to neglect their influence and market opportunities. DANSTRUCT is fostering these connections and building an industry network.

Plans to enter the global 3D virtual market

The motion data distribution solution, "XSTAGE," aims to solve all the problems that arise in animation work so that 3D content creators, including virtual creators and game developers, can focus solely on content creation. The goal is to eliminate the need for game production companies to operate their own motion capture studios in the future.

Currently, we are developing motion graphics technology that can identify the difficulties animators face in their actual work sites and improve efficiency, such as retargeting and cleanup AI that can easily apply motion data to various characters, and motion generation AI that can generate motion and choreography by inputting text.

DANSTRUCT developed its platform with a global audience in mind from the outset. XSTAGE currently supports five languages, including Chinese, Japanese, and Spanish, and 80% of its B2C sales come from overseas users. In the second half of this year, the company plans to showcase solutions utilizing 3D motion technology at the Tokyo Game Show, G-Star, and other events, targeting global game companies.

"Our goal is to become a comprehensive entertainment company in the dance industry."

The ultimate goal of 'DANSTRUCT' is to become a comprehensive entertainment company in the dance industry.

"We aim to create a large value chain within the dance industry, from creating media content utilizing dance IP to distributing it across various games and metaverse platforms, much like music, and generating copyright revenue through this."

Specifically, the company plans to build a value chain for the dance industry through a media content business that fosters dance IP, a platform business that distributes IP globally, game development utilizing the IP, and a management business that manages dancers.

The digital transformation of dance, creating a new industry

What 'DANSTRUCT' focuses on is that the dance industry is an entertainment field that has not yet undergone digital transformation.

"Music became a huge market when it transitioned digitally from CDs to MP3s and then to streaming platforms. Webtoons, too, were digitized, creating a new industry. I believe dance, too, can become digitalized through motion capture technology and then spread across various platforms through distribution systems, creating a new industry."

We are particularly focusing on the growth potential of the 3D market. With all digital content, including social media, games, and entertainment, expected to transition to 3D, technological hurdles are also expected to be gradually resolved with advancements in AI technology. Human movement is essential in the 3D market, and DANSTRUCT is building a platform specifically focused on dance, a field that can generate high added value.

DANSTRUCT's challenge goes beyond simple technological development to lead the digital transformation of the entire dance industry. With the global spread of K-POP, attention is focused on whether dance content, which is gaining traction, can evolve into a digital industry equipped with new revenue models and creator protection systems.