S.Korea to support exports of 100 SMEs in metaverse, XR industry

South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT announced on Thursday that it will support the export of 100 small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the metaverse and extended reality (XR) fields.

Through the "Digital Content Global Capability Enhancement" project, which will receive 11.9 billion won ($8.9 million) this year, local platform entry and crowdfunding will be supported so that the metaverse field and other fields such as health, education, webtoons and new media can pioneer overseas markets together.

In addition, it will provide export support linked to large-scale projects such as overseas construction projects. The government will support the formation of consortiums and contracts between construction, manufacturing, energy, defense companies and metaverse SMEs.

The program aims to nurture early-stage domestic metaverse and XR companies into strong exporters through capacity enhancement consulting, connections with domestic and foreign investors and product and service optimization, and support their participation in major global markets such as CES, the world's largest IT and home appliances exhibition.

Furthermore, it will establish a permanent exhibition hall for the export of small- and medium-sized ICT companies in the global metaverse platform and support the entry of around 10 companies this year.

The support program will be carried out in collaboration with global big tech and platform companies to provide a stepping stone for early-stage startups to rapidly grow into unicorns.

"If products and services that combine domestic key industries, including ICT, and metaverse are discovered and overseas markets are actively targeted, we can expect to pre-empt the initial market in the metaverse market and expand exports to other industries as well," said Oh Yong-su, Director of the Software Policy Division at the Ministry of Science and ICT.

Write to Ji-Eun Jeong at jeong@hankyung.com