Academia, Businesses Join Metaverse Frenzy

SEOUL, Nov. 9 (Korea Bizwire) — Elite colleges and universities appear to be riding the metaverse wave as Yonsei University recently held an exotic off-campus team-building outing — commonly referred to in South Korea as “membership training” (MT) — using popular virtual platforms including Gather Town and Roblox.

Over 100 college students from Global Leaders College at Yonsei University got together, virtually, in a team-building event last Friday where they played a couple of fun games such as “Red Light, Green Light” from Netflix’s mega-hit series “Squid Game.”

Introducing herself as one of the ‘pathetic Class of COVID-19′ – students enrolled in the year of 2020, at the height of the pandemic – Kim Seo-yeon, a sophomore from the department of Bio & Living Engineering said, “as we enrolled in the year when the pandemic was in full swing, we couldn’t walk around freely on campus.”

Kim, who won the first prize in an audition game organized in the event, added, “I would say this event has proved to be one of the most memorable college experiences in my life.”

College festivals in virtual space are also drawing interest. Last Wednesday, Sookmyung Women’s University held a campus festival using Snowverse, a virtual campus platform developed by the university.

At an event online, several students and Jang Yoon-geum, president of the university, took a commemorative photo without the hassle of having to wear masks.

When they went on a photo shoot, some cats gathered around them in the cyber world. Street cats are common on campus and a club devoted to caring for these cats is popular.

The coronavirus outbreak has upended all the normal routines on campus. The pandemic has changed the way the school welcomes freshmen and integrates them into the college community.

The metaverse, however, has restored the lost ‘campus vibes’ to some extent, with many experiences to be felt on campus including welcoming events, graduation ceremonies and recruitment fairs seemingly destined for virtual platforms in the future.

Businesses also look to opportunities to be created by metaverse technology.

As young people are very well-versed in activities taking place in virtual spaces, an increasing number of companies are introducing metaverse platforms at various stages of hiring and job training sessions.

Samsung Electronics Co., for example, used the metaverse in its open recruitment process.

One-on-one career counseling services and the awards ceremony for the Samsung Collegiate Programming Cup, a coding competition targeted at college students, were held in the metaverse.

LG Electronics Inc. has introduced the metaverse in its recruitment briefings and new employee training sessions as well; other conglomerates including Lotte Group and Hanwha Group are also jumping on the bandwagon.

Jerry M. Kim (jerry_kim@koreabizwire.com)