To dispel concerns from some quarters that the metaverse is nothing more than business marketing, the Seoul Smart City Leaders Forum brought together global corporate and policy leaders to share the present and future of the metaverse and provide a platform for discussions on responding to upcoming changes.

The '2022 Seoul Smart City Leaders Forum' was held on the 27th at the DDP Conference Hall, hosted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The Digital Seoul Summit, which included opening remarks, keynote speeches, and Seoul City policy announcements, was held in the morning, while the Leaders Forum, consisting of city, business, and youth sessions, took place in the afternoon.

Held under the theme "META and Seoul: An Era of Connection Beyond Digital Exclusion," this forum promoted the development of sustainable smart cities and shared the changes and visions of cities driven by digital technology.

In her keynote speech, CEO Phila Conesa of Anteverti provided an overview of the present and future of smart cities. He said, “Smart cities signify a major digital transformation, and the metaverse world is dawning along with the importance of 5G, sensors, robots, and artificial intelligence.”

Yang Maeng-seok, Vice President of SK Telecom’s Metaverse, predicted regarding the social changes the Metaverse will bring that “2D internet service spaces will transform into 3D virtual spaces, and the scope of non-face-to-face activities freed from spatiotemporal constraints will expand.” It is expected that spaces for performances, education, and finance will be created within the Metaverse, and job categories such as virtual influencers and 3D content creators will become more active.

■ Seoul Metropolitan Government, “Expanding Digital Welfare with Smart Infrastructure”
Seoul City boasts a smartphone penetration rate and internet usage rate of 90% among its citizens, demonstrating high utilization in the digital service sector. In particular, the usage rates of internet banking and shopping among middle-aged and older adults are increasing year by year.

Lee Hye-kyung, Director of Digital Policy at the Seoul Metropolitan Government, explained, “We are expanding digital competency enhancement training for the digitally disadvantaged middle-aged to cope with the increasing number of kiosk devices.”

The Seoul Metropolitan Government established a metaverse in the public sector and launched 'Metaverse Seoul,' becoming the first local government to do so. Utilizing this, it aims to foster industrial ecosystems in the economic field and has set its direction to include realizing virtual administration and supporting immersive education and learning. Starting with a pilot service last year, the business is proceeding with the goal of establishing it by 2026.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that during the introduction phase this year, it will promote resident companies through the Seoul Fintech Lab Playground and operate virtual counseling rooms for youth as well as administrative and tax counseling services.

Meanwhile, at a policy forum, the policy official stated, “We will soon implement autonomous driving services to protect the mobility rights of the disabled as part of the plan to operate autonomous vehicles in public transportation and administrative vehicles by 2026,” while also revealing, “We are also pursuing cooperation with the private sector to establish kiosk standards.”

■ 3 Leaders Forum CEOs Share Metaverse Vision
Unity Technologies Korea, Neptune, and Lotte Data Communication participated in the Leaders Forum corporate session to share their metaverse technology and vision.

Kim In-sook, CEO of Unity Technologies Korea, said, “The metaverse is not a destination but one of the processes of evolution,” adding, “It will transform into the future metaverse through continuous business models and validation processes.” Real-time 3D digital twin models are proving their usefulness by being applicable to urban planning and architectural simulations, as well as simulations for disaster situations such as floods.

Rumors are circulating in the industry that the metaverse is changing the way customers experience things, and that only organizations that adapt to these changes will survive. Unity, which is expanding its reach beyond the gaming sector to the entire industrial spectrum based on modeling, stated, “The metaverse will only shine if it increases public accessibility by integrating available technologies such as 5G, cloud, XR, AI, and robotics.”

Yoo Tae-woong, CEO of Neptune, a provider of metaverse creation solutions, is building a metaverse platform called Colorverse. He stated, “We need to consider seamless solutions that resolve connection constraints between 2D and 3D, as well as between web and apps,” and added, “I look forward to a metaverse platform where various services gather, much like a mobile platform.”

Noh Jun-hyung, CEO of Lotte Data Communication, emphasized, “The metaverse of the Web 3.0 era must become a system capable of P2E (Play-to-Earn), P2C (Play-to-Create), and UGC (User Generated Contents), and this will become the ultimate business of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

Currently, metaverse platforms are structured around communities and games. In response, CEO Noh stated, “The next-generation metaverse lies in reality and immersion,” arguing that relevant legislation is necessary because the aforementioned P2E and UCG can bring about immersion. He heightened future expectations for Lotte Data Communication’s ultra-realistic metaverse platform by revealing, “Lotte Data Communication’s Caliverse will unveil a new service model at CES 2023.”