NEAR Protocol and the rising metaverse platform ZEP form partnership to onboard users

South Korea's leading metaverse platform, ZEP, announced on the 13th a partnership with the global Layer 1 platform NEAR Protocol and revealed plans for building on NEAR Protocol.

NEAR is a blockchain network optimized for large scale user-oriented service operations, offering a user-friendly interface and stability similar to Web2. Leveraging these advantages, NEAR has seen rapid growth among Layer 1 blockchains this year, with NEAR-based dApps ranking 1st and 2nd among all blockchain applications according to DappRadar.

ZEP, a joint venture between mobile game developer Supercat (known for "The Kingdom of the Winds: Yeon") and NAVER Z's operator Zepeto, launched its beta version on November 30, 2021. With 1.3 million monthly active users (MAU) and 8.3 million cumulative users this year, ZEP has garnered attention from domestic and international businesses and public institutions. With proven usability in the domestic market, ZEP is poised to enter the Japanese and Southeast Asian markets in the second half of the year.

Mark Mi, Gaming Director of NEAR Protocol, stated, "This collaboration with ZEP is a significant opportunity to expand the NEAR ecosystem into the new realm of 1the metaverse." He added, "We will continue to strive to expose NEAR users to various content in different areas. Through collaboration with dApps in the content and gaming fields based on NEAR, we will assist ZEP's business expansion in the Web3 domain."

NEAR Protocol and ZEP aim to explore a business model that provides various benefits to users through this collaboration. They also plan to develop Web3-related features that enhance the convenience of developers and users. Based on this collaboration, ZEP's partners are expected to easily issue and distribute various Web3-based digital assets, allowing users to enjoy a convenient Web3 experience in the ZEP metaverse environment.