Busan taps K-pop metaverse to win 2030 World Expo bid

Busan, South Korea’s second-largest city, is opening a virtual space on Naver Z’s Zepeto metaverse at 12 p.m. on Friday, Korea time, to promote the city in efforts to host the World Expo in 2030.

Fast facts

• The metaverse lot, named the ‘2030 World Expo X4 Entertainment World,’ resembles the port city and aims to attract the attention of millennials and Generation Z users for the 2030 Expo.

• Busan’s metaverse space features a virtual entertainment agency named ‘X4 Entertainment’ established by Lee Jung-jae, the Emmy-award winning actor of Squid Games.

• Visitors will be joined by a virtual idol band formed by avatars representing some of Korea’s popular musical acts — Zion.T, Arin of Oh My Girl, JEON SOMI and Wonstein.

• Metaverse visitors can experience being a K-pop trainee at X4 Entertainment, and participate in games, and educational content.

• Busan City, along with Rome and Riyadh, are vying to host the World Expo in 2030. The upcoming Expo in 2023 will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

• The city has been officially designated as a ‘blockchain regulation-free zone’ of the country, and is developing its first city-backed crypto exchange with help from Binance, FTX, and Huobi Global.

• Zepeto, established by the metaverse subsidiary of South Korean internet giant Naver, had over 20 million monthly average users in March this year, according to its website.

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