A study indicated that South Korea's extended reality (XR) industry competitiveness lags behind major countries such as the United States, China, and Japan.
The Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade noted on the 30th that the findings from a survey of expert perceptions regarding the XR industry are reflected in its report on 'Trends and Strategies for Enhancing XR Industry Competitiveness by Country.'
In this survey, South Korea received an overall score of 75.4. This is over 20 points behind the United States, which ranked first with a score of 95.6, and assessed to be competitively inferior to China (85) and Japan (78.8). The report analyzed that there is a technological gap of about two years with the United States and one year with China.
South Korea's influence in global market share also appears minimal. In 2022, South Korea's revenue related to virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) reached 1.25 trillion won (approximately $850 million), accounting for only 2.6% of the global market ($32.1 billion).
In the assessment of seven categories, including finished goods, parts, cultural content, industrial content, platforms, communication networks, and policy and regulatory environments, South Korea fell behind the United States and China in all sectors except for communication networks. The communication network environment was rated higher than the United States, China, and Japan due to the commercialization of fifth-generation mobile communications (5G) and the proactive development of 6G.
The report assessed that the United States is leading the XR industry with proactive investments from big tech companies like Meta, Apple, and Microsoft, maintaining a self-reinforcing ecosystem from devices to platforms. Regarding China, it pointed out that the central government is providing policy support for nurturing metaverse and XR-related corporations, as well as building industrial complexes, with provincial governments actively implementing specialized policies.