A SF film ‘Avatar,’ released in 2009,  of story is about earthlings adapting to a new planet to solve the problem of global energy depletion. In the production process of this film, filmmakers substituted the new planet with a virtual world and created virtual characters called Avatars. It was a new genre with different challenges from previous movies, and it had huge success at the box-office with a record-breaking number of viewers. Also, when the movie was released, most people were under the impression that the application of avatars would be limited to digitally created content. They did not realize that it would be possible to insert virtual characters, or avatars, into real world situations and to have them communicate with the other people. Surprisingly, humans currently create virtual humans to promote and sell products and guide motorists as they travel in their vehicles. In addition, it became a reality that real people communicate with virtual people in a virtual world using personal avatars that look like themselves, akin to the avatars in SF movies.
  What is done through this virtual world by virtual humans is called ‘Metaverse.’ It is a compound word of the English word ‘Meta,’ which means ‘virtual’ and ‘transcendence,’ and ‘Universe.’ It means that the virtual world can be a place where social, economic, and cultural activities are taking place like in the real world. Also, it is applied in various forms and exists in the form of creating a new virtual world or creating a virtual world that is the same as the real world. Things that seemed to exist only in novels and movies in the past are now being done in everyday life.
  A well-known example of ‘Metaverse’ that permeated into everyday life is the ‘ZEPETO’ application. ‘ZEPETO’ is an avatar service of augmented reality (AR) operated by ‘Naver Z.’ This service creates a 3D avatar that resembles a user, and then naturally synthesizes the avatar into a real photo or virtual background. In addition, this virtual system can be used for SNS functions that enable text or speaking among users in the virtual world, especially among teenager groups to communicate using it. In addition, due to the influence of COVID-19, these virtual systems have brought a great change in the K-Pop market. Recently, more than 46 million people could participate in Blackpink’s virtual fan signing event held at ‘ZEPETO,’ because there was no limit on the number of people allowed. Also, it received a good response from many people in that it can be easy to communicate and enjoy time with their favorite celebrities in virtual spaces. Therefore, it is possible to create a new fan culture by using such virtual realities and a virtual world.
  Even, ‘Metaverse’ can be used as a unique concept in K-Pop culture. Last year, SM Entertainment’s K-pop group ‘Aespa,’ which used AI avatars, announced its debut, drawing attention with the unique concept. Also, this group has been active with avatars reflecting the member’s actual appearance since its debut, such as posting videos of communicating with the avatars that resemble them, and singing together or appearing in music videos with them.
  Chang Jun-hwan, who is a professor of the Computer Engineering Department of Chungbuk National University and an International lawyer from New York, mentioned the economic value of metaverse, “I am a lawyer specializing in International Business, M&N, and Foreign Investment. I have to read and predict current trends because my specialty field is Foreign Investment. I thought about which things have economic value in the COVID-19 pandemic to read the trends and concluded that intellectual property rights would be important in the situation. I found that metaverse has both intellectual property rights and economic value and started to investigate metaverse and enter the metaverse market. Metaverse is a business platform made with VR technology. VR technology starts and ends with ‘amazing,’ I think metaverse has an ‘expandability’ to continuous economic activities. First, metaverse serves as an opportunity to drive people’s interest in economic activities. They think ‘Shall I make and sell clothes for avatars?’ and gradually begin to consider metaverse as space for economic activities. Plus, metaverse makes people think continuously “How can I make money through metaverse?” when they discover other people who get money through metaverse. I think this situation shows that metaverse has an ‘expandability’ in economic activities.”
  He also commented on metaverse’s area of use saying, “Facebook has created ‘Horizon’ that is a virtual meeting space using metaverse. People think “Will Horizon be able to replace Zoom?” but I think Both Horizon and Zoom will be used for meeting spaces. I use KakaoTalk in Korea, WhatsApp in the USA and Secret when I send important texts as chat applications. I use three apps depending on my purpose of use and people use both Google and Naver depending on their purpose of use. I think both Horizon and Zoom will be used actively depending on the user’s purpose of use. Therefore, I think the metaverse platform will be used in various fields depending on what people need.”
  It has become natural for people to create and utilize virtual worlds and virtual characters that people thought couldn’t happen in the past. In addition, many experts predict that metaverse will be applied in various application areas in the future, and this is now becoming our economic activity space. However, the use of new services may have several side effects. How about having simple prior knowledge before using these services?

By Kang Min-ji | mj41@cbnu.ac.kr
By Ahn Min-joo l mj40@cbnu.ac.kr