A South Korean electronics giant has announced plans to invest over $35 million in virtual reality initiatives in Latin America. As part of the company's digital expansion and growth marketing strategy, this move is meant to reach and engage younger audiences. 

Anita Caerols, Samsung Electronics' director of marketing and corporate citizenship in Chile, detailed the company's recent VR efforts in an article published on December 20. "At Samsung, we believe that the metaverse is a concrete commitment to connecting with young consumers. That is why we are investing more than US$35 million in initiatives that cover all of Latam," she said. 

A fully immersive platform is the future of marketing, according to Caerols, and the metaverse is the natural extension of social media for digital natives. Samsung needs to pursue this area, given its marketing goals of reaching and connecting with younger audiences, establishing relationships with potential consumers, and partnering with influencers.? 

Recent studies show that virtual reality platforms, also known as the metaverse, have a thriving user base of 400 million monthly active users. According to Samsung, 51% of these users are under the age of 13. As the next generation grows up, it is expected that the lines between the virtual and real world will become increasingly blurred, offering numerous opportunities for collaboration and creation in the metaverse. 

Samsung has been exploring the potential of the metaverse for some time and has recently made strides to join several virtual reality platforms. Samsung has released two virtual reality experiences on Decentraland and Roblox, "House of Sam" and "Space Tycoon" respectively. The former allows customers to virtually try out Samsung products, while the latter lets users build Samsung products in a space station setting using raw materials. Both experiences demonstrate Samsung's focus on the metaverse as a marketing tool.