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South Korea is the first country where the Metaverse is going mainstream
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South Korea is the first country where the Metaverse is going mainstream

Daniela Kirova
Daniela Kirova
January 31st, 2023
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Public services and industries have started rolling out apps and virtual avatars across South Korea, indicating the Asian country will become the first to immerse itself in the Metaverse. South Koreans and an increasing number of South Korean corporations welcome and have begun to integrate the Metaverse into their everyday lives, CoinTelegraph reported.

  • If you want to know more about the metaverse, we’ve put together a guide explaining what a metaverse is.

The Metaverse in shopping

GS Shop, a major retailer, introduced home shopping via the Metaverse on November 16. They did this by revealing the inner workings of a food production facility. GS Shop’s 3D representations were aimed at ensuring customers that the food was safe and high quality. They turned scans of the physical venue into 3D representations.

What Metaverse tools do you need?

Customers could take a virtual tour of the facility using an augmented reality (AR) device, similar to the haptic gloves showcased by Meta earlier this week.

Meta’s haptic gloves were in development for 7 years. On November 16, the company formerly known as Facebooksharedits latest breakthroughs in haptic glove research.

According to Meta, these gloves can send “precise instructions to the actuators on the hand” that aligns with tracking technology that shows where the hand is as well as the features of virtual objects in the Metaverse.

Jason Ye, co-founder of multi-chain accelerator DeSpread, said:

It seems like every company is diving into the Metaverse and Play to Earn these days. Korea has lots of huge IPs. If you can combine those IPs with great content around them, you can build a great business model. Attractive contents are the basis for entering the Metaverse.

Metaverse avatars popping up everywhere

AI and Metaverse avatars are popping up in finance, retail, public services, and other industries. The avatar of Lucy, a virtual model launched by Lotte Home Shopping, has its own Instagram account.

The model assists in promoting the products of the brand, which topped $14 billion in sales last year. Lotte will probably integrate Lucy into its Metaverse-based virtual store. Coins like Decentraland’s MANA are banking on anything Metaverse-related.

Government to build a Metaverse platform

VR will be deployed in the public sector too. The government of Seoul City announced plans to build a Metaverse platform in two years. Residents will be able to file civil petitions there. The platform, which will bear the tentative name of ‘Metaverse 120 Center’, will handle visits that don’t require someone to be physically present.

Contributors

Daniela Kirova
Writer
Daniela is a writer at Bankless Times, covering the latest news on the cryptocurrency market and blockchain industry. She has over 15 years of experience as a writer, having ghostwritten for several online publications in the financial sector.