In Brief:
- KRAFTON has indirectly invested $4.2 million in Naver Z’s metaverse platform, Zepeto.
- The investment will be used in the development of the 3-D virtual space in the metaverse.
One of the leading South Korean gaming companies and the developer of the famous PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), KRAFTON is now silently sneaking into metaverse development after watching its potential future growth.
According to a reliable source, the developer has indirectly invested 5 billion Korean($4.2 million) won in Naver Z, which is developing the 3-D virtual space Zepeto metaverse platform.
The fund was not invested straight to the Naver Z. The fund was first allocated to Naver Jet, which is the “Grandson” or vertical of Naver. An official from Krafton explained, “It was an indirect investment in terms of metaverse research.”
KRAFTON wants to expand its reach into the metaverse after getting huge success in online mobile gaming through PUBG, TERA, and ELYON. CFO of KRAFTON.
Krafton Chief Financial Officer Bae Dong-geun said that the company wants to integrate new gaming concepts such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and “Krafton has been using the term ‘interactive virtual world’ instead of metaverse for a long time. are doing,”.
He further added, “I am encouraging that NFTs (non-fungible tokens), which the market is paying attention to, can have realistic values as goods and contents in the interactive virtual world.”
Currently, Zepeto metaverse is holding up 240 million worldwide user bases and most of them are teenagers. The metaverse gets this fame through partnerships with fashion brands and K-pop idol groups.
Last week, Zepeto raised a $150 million investment from Softbank in a Series B funding round, which made a total valuation of this company $1 billion.
