South Korea’s metaverse platform ZEP has announced an important partnership with NEAR Protocol, a global layer 1 blockchain platform. This move highlights ZEP’s strategy to partner with leading IPs and onboard new users by leveraging the NEAR Protocol’s reliable and user-friendly network.
The NEAR Protocol is known for its customizable blockchain network, ideal for large-scale user-centric services. It has seen solid growth among layer 1 blockchains this year, and its applications have consistently ranked highly on DappRadar. This rise signals the NEAR protocol’s stable infrastructure and increasing attractiveness in the blockchain application space.
ZEP’s trajectory
ZEP was created through a partnership between Supercat and Naver Z’s ZEPETO. It is showing remarkable progress since its beta launch on November 30, 2021. The platform is attracting the attention of domestic and foreign stakeholders, recording 1.3 million monthly active users and 8.3 million users as of 2021. Additionally, ZEP aims to enter Japan and Southeast Asia by the end of this year based on its solid foundation in the Korean market.
Mark Mi, Game Director at NEAR Protocol, highlighted the benefits of the partnership. This agreement will help expand NEAR’s ecosystem into the metaverse. The plan includes shaping ZEP’s growth on Web3 by integrating NEAR’s various gaming dApps and other content.
According to Mark, “This collaboration with ZEP is an important opportunity to expand the NEAR ecosystem into a new area called the Metaverse.” He added, “We will continue to make efforts to ensure that NEAR users can access a variety of content in various fields.” We will support the expansion of ZEP’s Web3 domain business through collaboration with dApps in the content and game fields based on NEAR.”
Towards Web3 integration
ZEP provides a dynamic virtual environment where users can seamlessly navigate, communicate, and interact within a vibrant community. You can create virtual chat rooms that reflect real-world environments, such as offices, classrooms, social events, and business spaces.
On the ZEP platform, users also have the opportunity to personalize their experience by customizing their avatar to reflect their unique identity. The platform enhances user interaction through the integration of links, documents, video, and interactive game elements.
NEAR Protocol’s partnership with ZEP aims to discover new business models and emphasize the creation of Web3-centric features. This improves convenience and experience for developers and users. The collaboration between ZEP and its partners will enhance the user experience in the ZEP metaverse by integrating Web3 technology for the distribution and issuance of various digital assets.