A recent announcement from the government of South Korea disclosed that they are planning on making direct investments in Metaverse platforms. The minister of science and information of South Korea, as well as that of communication technologies, Lim Hyesook was the one who made the disclosure. He stated that the government was planning on investing about $177 million in this field with the aim of kick-starting companies and introducing national jobs. This would make South Korea one of the first nations to make direct investments in this particular space.There is already a great number of companies and VC firms that are venturing into this space and investing funds.
This has also prompted some countries to follow their lead and secure their future by investing in this emerging field. South Korea has now been added to the list of these countries and it will also invest in initiatives as well as firms that are part of the metaverse. According to Lim Hyesook, the metaverse is a digital continent that remains uncharted for now, but it definitely has a lot of potential. This indicates that the South Korean government believes that this new technology offers a lot of possibilities. South Korea has recently decided to focus on new technology.
It issued Digital New Deal, which is a set of guidelines that are being followed by the country’s government for pushing its citizens into creating an entirely digital society. This investment in the metaverse is part of this new venture. As mentioned earlier, there is already a substantial number of companies that have invested in this space, but not many nations have also made such bold moves. This is primarily because the metaverseis still highly unregulated and there are a lot of questions that are yet to be answered about how companies are operating in this sphere.
Likewise, there is not much information available about the intersection of the metaverse with Web3 technologies that can also come with a cryptocurrency element. DNAverse is a non-fungible token (NFT) startup and its chief executive, Javier Florenbelieves that regulation would have a big impact on the crypto and metaverse experiment. He said that the legal approach of the different countries would make a difference in this regard. The CEO said that there would definitely be dangers, challenges and issues when a disruptive ecosystem, or a new technology is introduced because the interaction is new.
But, with South Korea deciding to make direct investments in the metaverse, it could also prompt other countries to follow its tracks as well. Yugal Joshi, the partner of Everest Group, discussed about the possibility of this happening. He stated that this shows that even governments are taking the meraverse seriously because this platform has the capability of bringing people together. He said that anything that is capable of doing so is bound to attract the attention of governments and the same seems to be happening now. Regardless, it is a fact that regulation will also make a difference in how this field is dealt with.