The South Korean government has announced that will commence investing $177 million directly into metaverse projects to kickstart national jobs and new companies in the field.
The country’s minister of science and information and communication technologies, Lim Hyesook made the statement, clearly outlining the country’s determination about the metaverse, and cementing South Korea as one of the first countries to put money directly into the space.
Although more and more venture capital firms are actively investing in what is nicknamed the future of the internet, South Korea announced its plans to invest directly in companies as well as initiatives that are related to the metaverse. The country’s $177 million investment which was announced by Hyesook, will kickstart the national industry.
“An uncharted digital continent”
The minister of science and information and communication stated that the metaverse is “an uncharted digital continent with indefinite potential.”
While a lot of behemoth companies and firms are already investing huge sums of money into the metaverse, not many of them have delved into direct investment like South Korea. This could be due to the many regulatory questions that remain unanswered about operating metaverse companies and the intersection of Web3 technologies which could include a cryptocurrency element in the mix.
Javier Floren, CEO of NFT startup DNAverse already thinks that the metaverse as well as crypto experiment will be largely influenced by regulation. Floren said, “It’s going to depend on how different countries approach the legal side. With any new technology or disruptive ecosystem and new places to interact, there will be issues, challenges, and for sure, dangers.”
On the possibility of other countries following South Korea’s footsteps, Everest Group partner Yugal Joshi told CNBC, “Some things are happening in bits and pieces but I believe this does tell you that governments are starting to take this more seriously because it’s a platform where people come together. Anything which makes people come together, it makes governments interested.”
South Korea’s investment is also part of the new tech focus that the country has included in its Digital New Deal, a set of guidelines that the South Korean government is following in order to push its citizens to transition into a complete digital society.
Isa Muhammad is a writer and video game journalist covering many aspects of entertainment media including the film industry. He's steadily writing his way to the sharp end of journalism and enjoys staying informed. If he's not reading, playing video games or catching up on his favourite TV series, then he's probably writing about them.
