Seoul City Launches Metaverse Adoption... Partners with CJ OliveNetworks

Seoul City Metaverse Pilot Service Operation Agreement on the 16th
Avatar and Meeting Rooms Realized in 3D, Meetings Using 360-Degree VR and 3D Special Features

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government is initiating the introduction of the 3D space "Metaverse," which blurs the boundaries between virtual and reality, into city administration.

On the 16th, Seoul announced that it will create a virtual meeting room on the metaverse platform provided by CJ OliveNetworks and operate it on a trial basis. The term "Metaverse" is a compound of "meta," meaning virtual or abstract, and "universe," meaning the real world. It refers to a virtual world where economic, cultural, and social activities are possible through avatars representing "me" in the virtual space.

In the virtual meeting room, avatar civil servants enter to communicate, discuss, and conduct meetings, as well as hold major events. For public events, citizens can also participate as avatars.

Both the meeting rooms and avatars are implemented in realistic 3D, and special features such as VR videos and 3D objects that enhance communication can be utilized, enabling lively and immersive meetings. Models such as building bird’s-eye views and urban planning bird’s-eye views are realized in 3D and 360-degree VR, allowing participants to conduct meetings as if they were seeing them right in front of their eyes.

The meeting rooms vary in size, from small rooms accommodating six people to conference rooms that can host up to 200 attendees, allowing selection according to the nature and scale of the meeting.

Seoul plans to upgrade video conferencing methods to a new level and create an opportunity to increase the participation of the MZ generation in city administration. As the impact of COVID-19 prolongs and non-face-to-face culture develops instead of offline meetings, the metaverse is continuously expanding. In particular, the population active in online metaverse spaces is steadily increasing, centered on the MZ generation, who are familiar with digital devices.

Accordingly, on the 16th, Seoul will sign a business agreement with CJ OliveNetworks at the Seoul City Hall Seosomun 2 Building to operate the Seoul Metaverse pilot service. Seoul plans to explore the possibility of expanding the introduction of metaverse city administration through this agreement, while CJ OliveNetworks intends to use it as an opportunity for demonstration before launch.

Starting with the pilot operation of the metaverse meeting room, Seoul plans to explore the potential use of the metaverse in city administration and build its own "Metaverse Seoul Platform" by 2023, gradually expanding its use in areas with high utility such as housing, urban planning, and cultural tourism.

Park Jong-su, Director of Smart City Policy, said, "The prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the development of virtual technology, and citizens' desire for new experiences in digital spaces have combined to make the introduction of the metaverse into city administration essential. Seoul will begin introducing metaverse technologies such as metaverse meeting rooms within this year and will expand metaverse administrative services specialized in economy, education, culture, and tourism without spatial and temporal constraints in the future."

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