Korean President and Swedish Monarch celebrate eSports match at Ericsson Studio

During an official state visit in Stockholm, President Moon Jae-in of the Republic of Korea, and King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden visited the Ericsson Studio to celebrate advancements in technology with a friendly match between Sweden and South Korea’s national eSport teams.

The state visit celebrates that it is 60 years since Sweden and South Korea entered into diplomatic relations. Today, the countries are successful in IT, eSports and the future of technology—specifically 5G.

Before the eSports games began, a number of live 5G demonstrations where shown:

• A sky ship that was flying over Korea, remote controlled in Sweden over 5G remote controlled in Sweden over 5G.
• A 5G video call with a Swedish-speaking volunteer based in Korea who worked on the Winter Olympics.
• A LG 5G terminal application demo that showed just some of the consumer possibilities for a 5G phone experience.

After the demonstration, a game of Summoner’s League was played between Swedish and Korean players, watched by the Swedish King and the Korean President.

Korea is a true 5G trailblazer. In April 2019, all three of the Republic’s tier-1 operators launched commercial 5G services, an initiative that had strong backing from the South Korean government. This is the same government that announced its goal to cover 93 percent of the population with 5G by the end of 2019. The number of 5G subscribers in Korea has already exceeded one.

South Korea’s strong moves in 5G are proof of the enormous potential this technology can have on its economy. According to Ericsson’s analysis, industry digitalization investments have the potential to generate an estimated USD 619 billion in revenue for telecom operators by 2026.  

These economic benefits will be shared across multiple industries, but for electronic sports (eSports) the high throughput, low latency capabilities of 5G are poised to take an already growing marketing to entirely new levels. According to the World Economic Forum, eSports have a global audience of more than 300 million, revenues of over USD 1 billion.