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