The government of South Korea plans to invest directly in metaverse projects


The government of
South Korea has announced its plans to start investing directly in metaverse
projects and companies initiatives related to the metaverse, creating jobs and
supporting companies. More than $177 million dollars will be invested to
encourage the metaverse industry in the nation.
Digital New Deal
has been set up which are a set of guidelines the government is following for
investing in new technologies in the country’s economy. On Monday CNBC reported
that as part of this deal the Ministry of Science and Information and
Communication Technologies plans for expansion of metaverse industry in South Korea.
According to statements made South Korea's minister of science and information
and communication technologies Lim Hyesook, metaverse has indefinite potential
with the government earmarking 223.7 billion won which is about $180 million
for the endeavour. South Korea is one of the first countries investing funds in
this nascent industry to be made by a national government and is a cautious
first step into the metaverse.
According to the CEO
of NFT startup DNAverse, Javier Floren, regulation will influence the metaverse
and crypto experiment. He added that different countries approach towards the
legal side it is going to depend on.
Other firms
investing in metaverse :
Many Venture
capital firms and companies are actively investing in the future of the
metaverse. The Seoul metropolitan government has also started developing a metaverse
virtual platform which is valued at 3.9 billion won for citizens to allow
them to access public services through the internet. Other government bodies in
Asia are also showing interest. Shanghai's authorities want to begin building
public services that use the metaverse. In China, tech giants like Tencent and
Alibaba have shown interest for developing metaverse products. Recently Alibaba
invested in an AR glasses start-up.
But not many countries are there that directly have gotten into such investments which is mostly due to the unanswered questions from many regulatory regarding the operation of metaverse companies and the intersection of Web3 technologies.

Indrani bose
CBW - External Analyst
INDIA