A Desolate Everland Metaverse... No People in the Virtual Space

Everland Metaverse is virtually inactive just one year after its launch. It was initiated to secure potential customers in response to the rapidly growing virtual reality market, but failure to attract visitors has caused setbacks in the overall digital business that aimed to expand through the metaverse, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Everland Metaverse, created as a map-based world on the Roblox-based metaverse PlayDapp Land, has accumulated only 662,300 visitors as of the 25th. Samsung C&T Resort Division built the metaverse with blockchain service innovation company PlayDapp in June last year to provide a unique customer experience combining virtual and real worlds and to expand the digital-based Everland universe. However, interest in the metaverse amusement park sharply declined after the end of COVID-19, and various collaborative events held in virtual reality also decreased, leaving program updates sparse.

As metaverse popularity waned, NFT issuance, which began alongside the metaverse launch last year, also stopped. After releasing Everland’s first NFT commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Tulip Festival in April last year, and the main character 'BamBamMan' NFT for the summer festival 'Summer Water Fun' in July, that was the last issuance. Losing momentum for additional NFT releases made it impossible to realize plans to use NFTs obtained in the metaverse in the real-world Everland.

In contrast to the declining Everland Metaverse, Lotte World has been thriving since opening its map on the metaverse platform Zepeto in October 2021. After surpassing 6.6 million cumulative visitors one year after opening in October last year, the number exceeded 8.6 million as of May this year. Lotte World recently issued the Loti Stamp NFT featuring its representative character 'Loti' and is expanding its digital business by creating NFT games with the metaverse gaming platform 'The Sandbox' and other virtual reality NFT expansions.

The contrasting success of Everland and Lotte World’s metaverse ventures is analyzed to stem from differences in strategic partner selection. Zepeto targets mainly the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z), while Roblox is primarily used by younger teenagers. Therefore, it is difficult for Everland to achieve immediate customer expansion results through the Roblox-based metaverse.

Although the metaverse was started to digitally expand the offline-limited business structure and the Everland universe, the main target is potential future customers for expanding touchpoints, and since the business is still in its early execution stage, it is difficult to discontinue the project just because immediate results are lacking. A Samsung C&T official said, "Regarding the low number of metaverse visitors, we are currently considering the business while observing customer responses."