Samsung’s Cheil Becomes First To Enter The NFT Market In Korea

The South Korean Non-Fungible Token (NFT) scene is poised to see more explosive growth. Cheil Worldwide, a marketing agency under the Samsung conglomerate, has declared its intention to become the first advertising company to enter the NFT market.

Samsung’s Cheil Worldwide to launch an NFT marketplace

South Korean news outlet, ChozunBiz, reports that the advertising agency plans to not only issue NFTs but also launch a marketplace for trading and minting digital assets.

Cheil is also looking to partner with the country’s flourishing entertainment industry. It plans to promote intellectual property from the K-Drama, music, performances, exhibitions, and games as NFTs in its marketplace. The arrangement will greatly leverage an MOU signed with Studio Dragons, one of the hottest entertainment enterprises in the country at the moment.

The marketing agency is already recruiting professionals with a background in blockchain development to build the platform, ChosunBiz’s report noted.

According to the company’s CEO and president Jeong-geun Yoo, Cheil Worldwide has earmarked 2022 to expand its digital business. The year’s itinerary includes the NFT business and the production of metaverse content. Speaking during a recent general shareholders’ meeting, Yoo said:

As marketing channels such as metaverse and live commerce have diversified due to the recent corona pandemic (global pandemic), the importance of tech-based content has greatly increased.

He added that entering the NFT market has the potential for producing practical results. He also explained that entering the NFT market has the potential to give the company staying power even as other traditional marketing mediums are shrinking in demand.

The Samsung subsidiary is following in the footsteps of its parent company. Samsung has been pushing for NFT adoption. Earlier this year, the company introduced its lineup of smart TVs that support viewing and trading NFTs.

The NFT market in Asia is rapidly expanding

The Asian continent has not been left out of the over 200% growth of the NFT market by some estimates. Crypto market and blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis, revealed that combined regions of Central, Southern, and Eastern Asia account for roughly 37% of global traffic to NFT marketplace, OpenSea.

For some analysts, Asia’s attention to NFTs is only bound to increase. Yahudah Petscher, the NFT relations strategist at NFT data aggregator CryptoSlam, maintains this stance as he expects NFTs transaction volumes on the continent to increase more than 100x.

I’m expecting the type of sales we’re seeing now to be 100x, honestly. It’s going to be a number that’s probably going to blow us away soon, he voiced in an interview.