Asia’s Largest Metaverse Platform Goes Global

Zepeto Has Quickly Become a Hit with Korean Users, So Now It’s Time to Expand Into Other Locations

Zepeto is Asia’s largest Metaverse platform and is competing against large tech groups. The site is owned by the Korean tech group Naver and hosts over 340 million users. 

Currently the demographic most present on the app is young female users, due to its K-pop fashion-focused nature. The platform is valued at over 1 billion dollars and has gained investment from a number of Korean entertainment companies.

Credit: Zepeto.me

Richy Kang, head of business at Naver Z says: 

“We have established a very strong presence in Asia-Pacific, so we want to grow further in the region, but we also place a very strong emphasis on growing in the US and western Europe, [for example] in France, where we have already established high growth.”  As well as this the platform has shown to be popular in Brazil, Turkey and areas of the Middle East. 

As Meta has been putting billions into investment into the three-dimensional Metaverse, Zepeto is catching up. They have over 20 million active monthly users across Asia.

Credit: TechNode

The current source of profit is users purchasing virtual items, but as they step into the Metaverse they can purchase items that will tailored towards their individual virtual worlds. There is currently a focus on avatar content, the site being a virtual version of traditional social media sites. 

Zepeto has monetised its audience in allowing them to purchase virtual clothes, homewares cars and much more. This feature has been supported by a number of partnerships, with brands such as Gucci and Samsung allowing users to purchase virtual versions of items already available on the market. Naver Z has also formed partnerships with Disney and Universal.

Credit: Daily Record

South Korea has supported the introduction of the Metaverse with the launch of their “Metaverse Alliance,” which consists of over 200 companies and institutions. They have designated around $8 billion of its yearly budget for the investment in this technology. 

The next step for Zepeto should be to expand their audience. Like many social media sites, the platform has gained popularity with teenagers, and it should now be their goal to reach out to and target a range of demographics. On top of this, their audience is overwhelmingly female, so marketing to males as well may help their profits rise.

For our previous #SocialShort, click here.