Major Asian Enterprise Entry into Web3 Market
Analyzing the presence of large Korean and Japanese companies
TL;DR
The market participation of large companies plays an important role in accelerating the growth of the Web3 industry by fostering innovation across industries and increasing confidence in new technologies.
Large companies in Asia, particularly in Korea and Japan, are actively participating in the Web3 market to expand their global footprint and secure technology leadership.
Large Korean and Japanese companies are entering the Web3 market following unique strategies, and these activities are contributing to the emergence of Asia as a global center for the Web3 industry.
Why market participation from major companies is important
The presence of large companies in the marketplace does more than just expand markets; it fosters innovation across industries. They lend credibility to new technologies, and their stable resources allow them to make bold investments in new technologies. This accelerates the growth of the industry as a whole. This principle applies equally to the Web3 industry.
In particular, the Web3 industry is a technology-intensive industry, and the input of human and material resources from large enterprises is essential. Currently, the Web3 industry has low public awareness and acceptance. It is important to leverage the rich and powerful user base of major companies to promote the paradigm shift of the Web3 market. In this context, the participation of large enterprises in the market is an important key to the popularization of Web3 technologies.
The development of large enterprise-driven markets in Asia
The most prominent region for enterprise-oriented Web3 market development is Asia. From traditional conglomerates to big tech companies, many players are rapidly entering the Web3 market regardless of industry. This is in contrast to the relatively conservative stance of large enterprises in the US and Europe.
Moreover, it is impressive to see large enterprises in Asia not only engaging in strategic partnerships and investments but also actively utilizing Web3 technologies to participate in the market. They are not only indirectly participating in the Web3 ecosystem, but are also working to build innovative business models based on Web3 technologies. The global interest in the Asian Web3 market is growing, as the market is the most active in terms of large enterprise participation, which is essential for the popularization of Web3 technologies.
Moreover, large enterprises in Asia are not only engaging in strategic partnerships and investments but also actively utilizing Web3 technologies to participate in the market. This means that they are not stopping at indirectly participating in the Web3 ecosystem, but are also working to directly build innovative business models based on Web3 technologies. This trend of large enterprise participation, which is essential for the popularization of Web3 technologies, is one of the reasons why the Asian Web3 market is gaining such global interest.
Why large companies are moving into Asia
There are many reasons why large companies in Asia are actively entering the Web3 market. Two of the most common reasons are 1) the desire to expand their global reach. The Web3 industry is characterized by a digital market that transcends borders, making it easy to expand beyond the local region to the global market. Asian companies are trying to reduce their dependence on the domestic market and utilize Web3 technology to expand globally. For example, Korean conglomerates Lotte Group, Naver, Kakao, and others are expected to generate less than 20% of their total revenue from overseas in 2022, raising concerns about their reliance on the domestic market.
Share of revenue by region for major Korean companies in 2022
Second, there is a focus on securing technology leadership on a global scale. South Korea and Japan are among the fastest-growing IT industries in Asia, but the gap with the US market continues to widen. This is because technology leadership is heavily skewed toward the US, with big tech companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Google driving the market’s growth. In response, Asia-based conglomerates are aiming to gain a technological edge by moving quickly into Web3 markets where the major players are not yet clear. As this technological advantage is also important at the national level, there are cases where governments have taken the initiative to create policies to revitalize the Web3 industry.
Stock market capitalization by country
In addition, large enterprises are actively entering the Web3 market with the common goal of securing new growth engines and expanding their value chains. However, despite having the same goals, there are differences in how they approach and develop the Web3 market due to different regulatory environments and cultural characteristics. To better understand this situation, we will examine how Korean and Japanese conglomerates are entering the Web3 market at different stages of development.
Status quo of Korean enterprises that have entered the Web3 market (read more)
South Korea is a big player in the Web3 market, with more than half of the country's large enterprises having some sort of Web3 presence. In fact, about 56% of Korean conglomerates have Web3 business initiatives. In particular, traditional conglomerates such as SK Group, LG Group, and Lotte Group are active participants in the Web3 market, positively impacting the ecosystem.
Furthermore, large companies in the tech and gaming sectors are showing serious interest in the Web3 market. These companies are taking the lead by building their own mainnets in-house based on their high technical capabilities. For example, NAVER, Kakao, and Krafton are leading the Korean Web3 industry by developing Finschia, Klaytn, and Settlus mainnets, respectively.
Large game companies such as WeMade, Netmarble, Neowiz, and Com2Us are playing an important role in the regional and global Web3 gaming market by building their own blockchain-based game platforms.
The number of financial institutions entering the Web3 market has been rather limited. However, with the expectation of allowing security tokens and the easing of financial separation regulations, financial companies are expected to actively enter the market in the future. In particular, financial giants Mirae Asset Securities and Hana Securities have recently launched a project to build a securities token platform, responding to the upcoming digital asset era.
Status quo of Japanese enterprises that have entered the Web3 market (view details)
Like Korea, Japan is also a region where large companies from various industries are actively entering the Web3 market. This is in line with the government's efforts to revitalize the Web3 industry. Among them, large companies in the financial, telecommunications, and gaming sectors are the most active participants.
Compared to Korea, Japan's financial conglomerates are quite active in the Web3 market. This can be attributed to the result of Japan's easing of its financial separation policy, which has allowed Japanese financial firms to actively enter non-financial businesses. For example, SBI Holdings, a Japanese financial conglomerate, operates a virtual asset exchange and NFT marketplace.
It is also noteworthy that large Japanese companies are rapidly moving into the Web3 market through active collaboration with Web3 startups. In particular, Sony and Astar Network operator Startale Labs are collaborating to build blockchain infrastructure, and large Japanese game companies are actively developing Web3 games with Oasys operator Double Jump Tokyo.
In addition, Japan has seen significant capital investment in the Web3 market by companies such as NTT DoCoMo and SBI Holdings, and the development of the Web3 market is being driven by large corporations. NTT DoCoMo and SBI Holdings have established Web3 funds of 600 billion yen ($4 billion) and 100 billion yen ($676 million), respectively. The active participation and investment in the Web3 market by these large companies is accelerating innovation and technological advancement in the market, further raising expectations for future market revitalization.
Conclusion
Large enterprises' participation in the Web3 market plays a transformative role in industrial innovation and technology popularization. Large enterprises in the Asian region, particularly in South Korea and Japan, are actively entering the Web3 space to expand global markets and secure technological leadership. This trend is expected to intensify as the governments of both countries are implementing various policies to revitalize the industry to secure a leading position in global competition. Therefore, it is expected that large companies based in Korea and Japan will continue to have a major impact on the popularization of Web3 technology and the establishment of global leadership in the Asian market.
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