Naver Group is a South Korean internet conglomerate. It is the name behind messaging giant Line and popular selfie app Snow. The metaverse is the red hot concept that makes Roblox and other gaming giants the talk of the town.
Naver Z, a Naver subsidiary that runs the 3D-avatar app Zepeto, is launching a $100 million fund in the coming months to promote its newly launched plugin powered by Unity, the platform that enables creators to develop 2D and 3D content for mobile phones, PCs
Four-year-old Zepeto has an amalgam of entertainment, gaming, and social networking experiences. Users can design digital spaces and interact with others. Rudy Lee, Naver Z's chief strategy officer, said that the app has 20 million monthly active users, up from 10 million in May 2020.
The app's registered users have doubled to over 300 million since a year and a half ago, and the average session length has increased as well.
Female teenagers and early twenty-somethings in South Korea and China are the most likely users of Zepeto. Designers like Gucci and Ralph Lauren, as well as celebrities Blackpink and Selena Gomez, have chosen to build their own branded digital experiences with the help of Zepeto. In Zepeto's virtual world, designer accessories are more affordable than they are in real life.
The $100 million creator fund will allow Zepeto to support more experiences. Naver Z plans to take equity stakes in promising studios using the Unity plugin to generate 3D experiences on Zepeto, while it will also dole out cash rewards for high- potential creators using the tool.
The $190 million Series B fundraising round was led by SoftBank Vision Fund II and included major K-pop talent agencies and other investment firms.
Most virtual entertainment platforms rely on item sales to make money. In the first year of its existence, it has sold 2 billion pieces of items. The creator generated $500,000 in gross revenue last year.
Snow’s avatar app Zepeto registers 150M users, eyes China market
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