Morgan Chittum

<div id="highlights-block_621cfe7a9bccb" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Seoul aims to become the first city to enter the metaverse, Mayor Oh Se-hoon said last November</li>
 <li>The country does not currently permit the use of NFTs or token issuance in gaming</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



South Korea will spend at least $186.7 million, or 223.7 billion Korean won, to create its metaverse ecosystem, according to a <a href="https://doc.msit.go.kr/SynapDocViewServer/viewer/doc.html?key=dcc6cbad6011442e8caf03550a0e7ea7&amp;convType=html&amp;convLocale=ko_KR&amp;contextPath=/SynapDocViewServer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a> from the country’s Ministry of Science and Information and Communications Technology. 



The investment is a part of South Korea’s “Digital New Deal” — a set of policies that aim to help build out emerging digital technologies such as the metaverse and artificial intelligence platforms.



“It is important to create a world-class metaverse ecosystem as the starting point to intensively foster a new hyper-connected industry,” Park Yungyu, the ministry’s head of communication and policy, said in a translated statement.



The government agency said the capital will go toward the metaverse in particular, which it hopes will become a platform enabling industries and businesses to thrive.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The metaverse has the potential to create 1.5 million jobs, and the country plans to produce over 40,000 professionals that specialize in the nascent space, the ministry <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/south-korea-could-take-over-the-metaverse-through-gaming-industry-players-say/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">stated in January</a>. South Korea’s government, at the time, endeavored to make the country the fifth-largest metaverse market by 2026.



“I’m very much keen to believe that Korea is positioned to become one of the biggest metaverse players,” Alex Salnikov, co-founder at NFT marketplace Rarible, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/south-korea-could-take-over-the-metaverse-through-gaming-industry-players-say/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">previously told Blockworks</a>.



In an effort to push the country to the top of the global metaverse market, the Seoul Metropolitan Government <a href="https://www.euronews.com/next/2021/11/10/seoul-to-become-the-first-city-to-enter-the-metaverse-what-will-it-look-like" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a> that it wanted to build “Metaverse Seoul” last November.



By 2023, Seoul aims to create a metaverse where citizens can deal with civil complaints and consultations — virtually. Using virtual reality headsets, citizens could visit a virtual city hall as avatars instead of having to go in real life.



Seoul aims to become the first city to enter the metaverse, the capital’s mayor, Oh Se-hoon, said last November.



“The &#8216;Metaverse Seoul&#8217; initiative announced last year, and the commitment by the South Korean government to lead the global metaverse race in five years, certainly puts the country at the forefront,” Noah Gaynor, co-founder of metaverse startup Parcel, said to Blockworks. “But based on what we&#8217;re seeing, and the decentralized nature of the open metaverse, no single country or organization will rule the metaverse. This is a truly global movement with no geographical boundaries.”



The metaverse, however, is commonly associated with cryptoassets such as NFTs (non-fungible tokens). South Korea currently prohibits the use of any NFTs or token issuance in its gaming — which may pose a threat to its ambitious metaverse plans.



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South Korea To Pour $187M Into ‘World-class Metaverse Ecosystem’

<div id="highlights-block_61d3430a480bd" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>CEEK, a VR streaming platform, first hinted at a potential future collaboration with the brand in a Dec. 7 tweet</li>
 <li>CEEK founder Mary Spio told Blockworks that the reports alleging that H&amp;M is currently in partnership with her company are not true</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Retail giant H&amp;M is not opening a 3D store in the metaverse, despite widely-circulated media <a href="https://in.mashable.com/tech/26529/hm-jumps-into-metaverse-opens-its-first-virtual-store" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reports</a>. 



H&amp;M, the second-largest clothing retailer in the world, quickly dismissed the rumors in an email to Blockworks on Monday. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow"> “I&#8217;d like to confirm that we are not opening a store in Metaverse,” a spokesperson from H&amp;M said. </blockquote>



Rumors initially emerged after a tweet from virtual reality (VR) developer CEEK on Dec. 7, showcasing a concept project for a VR version of an H&amp;M store that hinted at a potential collaboration between the two.



“Yes we’ve seen the tweet from them but it’s not a collaboration with Ceek,” the spokesperson added, but did not specify future involvement with the Florida-based firm. 



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Shopping in the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/metaverse?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#metaverse</a> with <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24CEEK&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$CEEK</a> Concept VR store presented to <a href="https://twitter.com/hm?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@hm</a> by <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CEEK?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CEEK</a> Creating mainstream use cases for <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24CEEK&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$CEEK</a> + scaling <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Virtualreality?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Virtualreality</a> beyond games. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/VRAPP?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#VRAPP</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CEEKVR?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CEEKVR</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NFT?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NFT</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/VR?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#VR</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CEEKVenues?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CEEKVenues</a> 👉🏽 More at <a href="https://t.co/oAvCTgp2Bk">https://t.co/oAvCTgp2Bk</a> <a href="https://t.co/OI4BFkyUAw">pic.twitter.com/OI4BFkyUAw</a>&mdash; Ceek (@CEEK) <a href="https://twitter.com/CEEK/status/1468288936921468931?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 7, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



CEEK founder and CEO Mary Spio told Blockworks that the reports alleging that H&amp;M is currently in partnership with her company are false as well. 



However, there have been ongoing talks of future collaboration with the metaverse-related platform and H&amp;M USA, specifically.



&#8220;There has never been any statement from CEEK that we&#8217;re partnering with H&amp;M on a metaverse store,&#8221; Spio said. &#8220;It was a concept that was presented to [them] last year. We&#8217;re in discussions with them. That&#8217;s basically what this [tweet] is.&#8221;



Various media <a href="https://in.mashable.com/tech/26529/hm-jumps-into-metaverse-opens-its-first-virtual-store" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">outlets </a>previously reported that customers could walk through a virtual store in a 3D virtual world, also known as CEEK City Universe, and choose a digital clothing item offered by H&amp;M to purchase. Users could then buy the digital collectibles via a virtual currency, dubbed <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ceek-vr/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CEEK</a>, to wear online. 



&#8220;We are in discussions with different people at H&amp;M to make this a reality, but this is not something that&#8217;s a reality as of now,&#8221; Spio added. &#8220;I believe that this misinformation is probably put out there to spread FUD.&#8221;



CEEK is currently trading up 0.31% at $0.71 at time of publication. According to <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ceek-vr/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">C</a><a href="https://www.coinbase.com/price/ceek-vr" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">oinbase</a>, the token has declined by 22.5% in the past 30 days. 



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