South Korea Invests IDR 2.6 Trillion To Create Its Own Metaverse

JAKARTA - The South Korean government plans to disburse 223.7 billion Korean won or the equivalent of 186.7 million US dollars (Rp. 2.6 trillion) for the development of the metaverse. This is intended to support the growth of digital content and domestic companies. This was conveyed by the Ministry of ICT, Science and Future Planning of South Korea.

Reporting from Cointelegraph, the Ministry stated that some of the funds will be spent to complete four main goals in creating what appears to be an all-encompassing metaverse ecosystem, titled “Expanded Virtual Worlds.”

Government agencies intend to use its metaverse as a platform to expand the growth of the city's virtual industry, education, and media. Content creators will enjoy support in a variety of areas to attract the right talent, to help build the platform.

The ministry said that the metaverse ecosystem will host community-oriented creative activities, metaverse developer contests and hackathons.

Hashed CEO Simon Kim pointed out that the new metaverse platform has a particular focus on boosting commercial expansion by providing financial support for participants. He told Cointelegraph on Monday that he doesn't think there is a problem with the government providing the funds because "the private sector is actively investing in the metaverse market."

“This is a regulatory issue that the government should pay more attention to. In Korea, the issuance of NFT games is prohibited, and the issuance of tokens is also prohibited,” said Kim.

Hashed is a South Korean venture capital firm and crypto ecosystem incubator. Hashed has invested in metaverse projects such as Decentraland and The Sandbox.

The head of the Department of Communications and Policy Park Yungyu stated that the initiative to build this metaverse platform is part of the wider “Digital New Deal” in South Korea. The Digital New Deal is a set of policies designed to encourage the growth of digital technology.

“It is important to create a world-class metaverse ecosystem as a starting point to intensively drive a new hyper-connected industry,” said Park.

The Ministry hopes that in the future the metaverse can be reached globally. That way access to South Korean companies will increase over time. The government plans to provide full support to companies that offer financial support and technology development.

Jason Ye, co-founder of multichain eco-accelerator DeSpread, called the new funding a “positive signal” that the Korean government is interested in the metaverse.

“Excellent companies that are building a digital economy in the metaverse will be able to thrive with the support of the Korean government.”

The Seoul city government has also been exploring its options regarding the public metaverse space since last year. Last November, tentative plans for the launch of the “Metaverse 120 Center” summarized Cointelegraph's VOI.