Residents of the capital city of South Korea can now access city services in a virtual setting thanks to the launch of the Metaverse Seoul project through the Seoul Metropolitan Government.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon announced the beginning of Metaverse Seoul’s first phase in a press conference on January 16 following the project’s beta testing. The mayor claims that the internet would serve as a place of communication for people of the nation’s capital, enabling them to virtually visit many of Seoul’s attractions, view official papers, lodge specific concerns, and get assistance with filing municipal taxes.
Approximately 2 billion won ($1.6 million) or the first phase of the metaverse project was reportedly spent by the city administration. Oh claims that the second phase will focus on facilitating senior person access to the platform who might have difficulty physically traveling to city offices. As of 2022, more than 17% of South Korea’s population was over 65 years old, per Statistica data.
Metaverse Adoption
With 52 million people and one of the fastest internet speeds in the world, South Korea has taken the helm of some of the projects surrounding the adoption of blockchain technology as the metaverse expands.
The city of Busan declared plans to develop a cryptocurrency exchange in partnership with FTX prior to the company’s bankruptcy in November; the local government subsequently abandoned many of its global centralized exchange partners.
Following Facebook’s change of name to Meta in October 2021, there has apparently been an increase in interest in the metaverse, with numerous businesses announcing plans to establish virtual offices.
However, it’s possible that the collapse of the cryptocurrency market and the demise of important platforms like FTX, Voyager Digital, and Celsius Network delayed adoption in 2022.
According to a recent Cryptopolitan article, one of the best tips to emerge from the cryptocurrency industry in recent years has been predicted to be the Metaverse sector. NFTs and the metaverse were what investors clung to complete the year, despite the fact that the bearish trend in the general market outweighed every other part of the market.
One cannot help but predict that the metaverse sector will boom to a trillion-dollar market in the next seven years given the potential for both personal and business success.
