South Korean government becomes an early investor in Metaverse

Known for its strict stance on cryptocurrency regulation, South Korea is now betting big on Metaverse. The government will directly invest more than 223.7 billion won ($177.1 million) in various Metaverse projects.

The decision to invest in emerging metaverse technologies makes South Korea one of the first national governments to do so. The investment comes under the Digital New Deal initiative, which seeks to invest in emerging technologies.

The project is led by the National Ministry of Science and ICT, led by Lim Hyesook. Hyesook refers to the metaverse as "an unknown digital continent with unlimited potential", indicating that the government intends to dominate the metaverse technology.

According to CNBC, the state funds will initially be used to build a metropolitan-level Metaverse platform that will allow citizens to virtually access various government programs and services.

The South Korean government's investment in the Metaverse project may prompt other countries to follow suit.

Reports of the South Korean government's growing interest in Metaverse first emerged in February after two major South Korean retailers rolled out Metaverse and AI integration on their respective platforms to enhance customer experience.

South Korea has always been considered a technologically advanced country and has been actively promoting the new technology of blockchain. It was one of the first governments to introduce blockchain use cases for government agencies, setting a precedent for other countries to follow.

The Metaverse is a virtual reality world that uses non-fungible tokens for commodities (land, cloth, characters, etc.). Although the concept is fairly new, it has generated the biggest hype in the crypto world after NFTs. All the major tech companies, including Facebook, Google, and even Apple, have shown a lot of interest in the concept. Facebook even changed their entire brand to Meta.

The metaverse was one of the main topics of discussion during the just concluded 2022 World Economic Forum (WEF). Experts predict that the metaverse will play a role in various fields such as medical treatment and rescue where humans cannot perform tasks in person, and the setting of virtual reality will also play a huge role.