All you need to know about this country’s $186M plan to become metaverse leader

South Korea is in the news today after it announced that it plans to support an expanded virtual world ecosystem with an investment of 223.7 billion won or $186 million. The translated document stated,

“The Ministry of Science and ICT is a world-class expanded virtual world platform for the systematic implementation of the ‘Expanded Virtual World New Industry Leading Strategy.”

It added that it’ll include development support and the establishment of an expanded virtual world academy.

Earlier this year, the country had revealed that it aims to become the fifth-largest metaverse market by 2026. And, to do that, it said that the country plans to train 40,000 professionals and 220 companies in metaverse technology.

The release dated 27 February also added that the Ministry of Science and ICT focuses on creating a sustainable, expanded virtual world ecosystem based on public-private cooperation through the ‘Expanded Virtual World New Industry Leading Strategy.’

Along with that, it will promote inter-company collaboration, technology development, and regulatory innovation so that domestic companies can compete with global companies. The government reiterated.

“The policy direction of active support has been presented, and full-scale implementation begins.”

This essentially supports the government’s previous announcement that the metaverse will be led by the private sector, with the government backing them up.

“First, discover and support a leading expanded virtual world platform based on decentralization and creator economy.”

Secondly, the announcement added that the administration will support working-level professionals and high-level talent in the field. For the same, KRW 4.6 billion will be the investment amount to impart the technical knowledge. Apart from that, to expand the scale of small and medium-sized companies in the metaverse, a digital content fund has been created under the M&A fund worth 100 billion won.

“Third, to nurture specialized companies that lead the expanded virtual world industry, we will expand the regional corporate growth integration support base and provide intensive support…”

Park Yun-gyu, Head of the Information and Communication Policy Office of the Ministry of Science and ICT, said in the translated release,

“This year, it is important to create a world-class expanded virtual world ecosystem as a starting point for intensively nurturing the expanded virtual world, which is the core task of the Digital New Deal, as a new hyper-connected industry.”