When shopping online, there are times you hesitate to buy because there isn't enough information about the product. To solve this problem, a Start - Up has emerged that uses 3D technology to show products in a lifelike way. Lee Do-hae, head of Mitown, said, "Mitown is a Start - Up that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to create 3D content and distribute it to the e-commerce industry."
Mitown was founded in Mar. 2023 at Yonsei University by Lee, who was pursuing a Ph.D. in computer engineering, together with an advising professor and fellow researchers. Through its proprietary 3D rendering technology "VFGS," Mitown operates an AI-based platform that automatically converts real products into 3D content.
Lee said, "The world is actually 3D, but content around us like images and videos remained in 2D," and noted, "We wanted to use 3D to resolve inconveniences in e-commerce."
Lee cited "high unit costs" and "long production times" as problems in the existing 3D content industry. Lee explained, "Even though studies show that applying 3D increases purchase conversion rates and sales, the actual distribution rate was under 2 percent," and "since it takes 4 to 5 weeks to implement a single product and the expense runs into several million won, the distribution rate was low in the e-commerce market."
To address these issues, Mitown focused on price competitiveness and production efficiency. By introducing its own AI algorithms, it reduced the per-product production unit cost from the 5 million won range to about one one-hundredth, and shortened production time to about one twentieth.
As a result, Mitown began to be chosen by domestic fashion corporations. Today, about 80 domestic corporations use Mitown's services, including Youngone Corp. and Hyungji Fashion Group.
Lee also explained, "We focused on achieving ultra-realistic quality for products, including fur, shine, and button details." To that end, the company has built more than 1.2 million training data points to continue refining its models.
Mitown also worked to improve user experience (UX). Lee said, "3D content is visually striking, but if the files are heavy, slow loading degrades the user experience," and added, "We focused on optimization technology that reduces file size to 2–3 MB without sacrificing quality."
Mitown aims to distribute 3D content to 20–30 percent of the fashion e-commerce market. As of 2024, the e-commerce market is valued at 200 trillion won domestically and 7,500 trillion won globally.
Next, it plans to expand categories. Lee said, "We are currently focused on fashion, but we plan to expand into various categories such as food," and expressed ambition to "pioneer the 3D content market."