Samsung Group is reportedly mulling to invest about 5 billion won ($4.4 million) in Cyworld, which used to be Korea’s most popular social media platform in 2000s to build its artificial intelligence technology and personal assistant Bixby.

According to IT industry sources on Tuesday, Samsung Venture Investment Corp., an investment arm of Samsung Group decided to invest in Cyworld. The exact investment amount is unknown, but sources estimate about 5 billion won.

Cyworld could be likened to Facebook. It had been phenomenal until foreign social media arrived in Korea.

Industry watchers predict Samsung is making an investment in Cyworld to integrate the social network platform’s content service features and related technologies with its artificial intelligence-based personal assistant Bixby.

It has been servicing the digital assistant, which performs task such as sending messages and playing music on voice command, through its premium Galaxy S8 series smartphone. It is aiming to incorporate Cyword’s content services like news feed and music streaming into Bixby or introduce a completely new service by using the social network platform’s technology and manpower, market experts said.

By Lee Dong-in

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