[In-Depth Look] Metaverse Revolution, Opportunity Market for Korean Companies

Kim Ik-seong, President of the Asia-Europe Future Society and Professor at Dongduk Women's University

The metaverse, which connects virtual and real worlds, is emerging as a new lifestyle civilization. People enjoy shopping by relocating department stores from Seoul or New York into virtual spaces, attend classes without going to school, work and hold meetings in virtual offices. They can travel the world without boarding a plane and even climb Mount Everest in virtual space. It might even be possible to become a player on the soccer field where Son Heung-min is playing and enjoy the game together.

In the near future, we will be able to experience any space at any time with any people under any conditions we desire. The metaverse (extended virtual world) can expand to cover all experience areas including work, education, shopping, travel, gaming, movies, sports, advertising, promotional events, real estate purchases, and even the medical sector.

Market research firm Strategy Analytics forecasts that the global metaverse market size will reach approximately 324 trillion KRW by 2025. The metaverse will serve as a new breakthrough for people who feel the limits of patience due to the inability to engage in outdoor activities caused by COVID-19.

The metaverse consists of content that fills the space, three-dimensional video technologies such as light and sound that vividly express these spaces, and new devices (VR equipment) and platforms that realize these spaces, which will determine the speed of its expansion. It is expected to develop into a form that can even convey temperature, sound, and sensations.

For the metaverse market to expand, communication network technologies such as cloud and 5G, as well as infrastructure facilities like data centers that transmit and implement virtual worlds without bottlenecks, must also advance. Enormous capital investment is required. The scale and technological level of infrastructure will vary depending on the technological innovation capabilities of big tech companies and major telecommunications firms, as well as the quality and quantity of their investments. This is expected to be a factor that determines the national competitiveness of the metaverse industry.

It is urgent to create an industrial ecosystem and corporate culture that can induce technological convergence and cooperation among various companies engaged in the metaverse industry. Convergence among companies such as content providers, device material and component manufacturers, platforms, and infrastructure-providing telecommunications companies is essential. The government must organize and prepare financial and capital procurement systems so that such chemical bonds between companies can be formed healthily and rationally. Laws and regulations must be established and related restrictions removed.

Taking a trial-and-error approach is also an industrial policy to approach innovative technologies. Prolonged deliberation is the best obstacle to global innovation competitiveness. Politics, administration, and academia should propose critiques aligned with the pace of technological development. Last December, the government announced through the ‘Virtual Convergence Economy Development Strategy’ that it would invest 2.6 trillion KRW by 2025 to foster the metaverse industry.

Based on market needs, criteria for the order of support should be established, and budgets must be promptly executed through rules of order and fairness. The faster government support and deregulation proceed, the more the technological capabilities and competitiveness of our industries approaching the metaverse will multiply. The metaverse is evidently our forthcoming life and a new civilization. Political and administrative leadership that supports the creative entrepreneurship of Korean companies during this global business transition dominated by virtual reality is more crucial than anything else.

Kim Ik-seong, President of the Asia-Europe Future Society & Professor at Dongduk Women’s University

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.