Enjoy Beautiful Hanok Village in the Metaverse... Seoul City, Ultra-wide Metaverse Ecosystem

Seoul City-Gyeongbuk-Jeonbuk Ultra-Wide Consortium Wins Ministry of Science and ICT's 'Metaverse Platform Development Support Project'
Metaverse Implementation of Namsan Hanok Village and 'Myeongdong·Namsan Area'... Development of Cultural and Tourism Content

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 18th that it has been selected as the executing agency for the ‘2022 Metaverse Platform Development Support Project’ led by the Ministry of Science and ICT.

The ‘2022 Metaverse Platform Development Support Project’ is a project that supports the development of extended reality metaverse (XR Metaverse), which allows users to experience metaverse content, previously only available in mobile virtual environments, linked with the real world. The extended reality metaverse, identical to the real world, introduces advanced technology that converts three-dimensional spatial information constructed using high-precision surveying equipment into metaverse spaces, pursuing temporal and economic efficiency compared to the traditional manual construction methods.

This project is promoted through a super-regional consortium composed of Seoul (Seoul Business Agency), Gyeongsangbuk-do (Gyeongbuk SW Promotion Headquarters), and Jeollabuk-do (Jeonbuk Content Convergence Promotion Agency). A total project budget of 9.9 billion KRW will be invested, with 18 institutions including metaverse-related specialized companies participating to implement immersive content services based on extended reality (XR), which combines virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), by next year. The goal is to create a sustainable metaverse ecosystem by creating local landmarks in the metaverse space and showcasing various content created by citizens.

First, Seoul will produce cultural and tourism content themed around the beautiful hanok (traditional Korean houses) and traditional culture of Seoul, centered on Namsan Hanok Village. Four locations in the Myeongdong and Namsan areas ((tentatively named) Seoul Cube, Seoul Animation Center, Jaemiro/Jaemirang) will be implemented in the metaverse space, and content reflecting the characteristics of each region will be developed.

In particular, the tentatively named Seoul Cube (scheduled for completion in 2025) will be a space where creators’ characters and content can be experienced by citizens, and it will be introduced first through the metaverse before the actual physical space is constructed. This will provide citizens with the opportunity to pre-experience the interior of the building and various services in the virtual world, and plans are underway to reflect content created directly by citizens in the metaverse into the actual Seoul Cube to be built.

Seoul plans to support creative activities so that citizens and creators can produce and provide content showcased in the metaverse space, thereby building a sustainable metaverse ecosystem. For content created by citizens, a function to issue NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) will be installed to protect copyrights, and support will be provided to enable profit generation through O2O (Online to Offline) commercialization.

Meanwhile, following the signing of a metaverse business agreement with Gyeongsangbuk-do in March this year, Seoul is advancing the establishment of a metaverse ecosystem through super-regional cooperation, including being selected for the ‘2022 Metaverse Platform Development Support Project.’ The city plans to continuously expand cooperative relationships with various institutions to apply metaverse across culture, society, economy, and industry, and to expand content experience spaces that provide new enjoyment and convenience to citizens.

Park Jong-su, Director of Smart City Policy at Seoul City, said, “We expect this jointly promoted project through super-regional cooperation to be an opportunity to apply the latest metaverse technology in various fields,” adding, “We will take the lead in creating an industrial ecosystem that can generate new business models in the digital world by creating an open environment where citizens can newly experience the beauty of hanok and produce diverse content.”

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