What marketers need to know about Zepeto, the Korean metaverse platform

Nipping at the heels of the major players is the Seoul-based Zepeto. The app, which describes itself as an “immersive avatar-based social universe,” has a total user base of over 400 million registered accounts and a monthly active user count of 20 million. Last week, Zepeto partnered with Walmart to launch the platform’s first-ever e-commerce experience for physical goods. 

Here’s what marketers need to know about Zepeto.

What is Zepeto?

Zepeto was launched by the Naver Corporation, a South Korean search engine and internet company, in 2018, spinning off into its own corporation two years later. Like other metaverse platforms, it’s a social app in which users can design, share and hang out in virtual worlds of their own creation. (Digiday reached out to Zepeto, but a company rep was unable to respond prior to publication of this article.) 

In Zepeto, the experience is centered around users’ avatars — virtual representations of themselves, which they can create by uploading photos of themselves to the app. The name “Zepeto” is a reference to Geppetto, the fictional creator of the character Pinocchio. 

Due to its increased focus on individuals’ avatars and their appearances, the culture of Zepeto revolves heavily around virtual fashion, and brands such as Gucci and Ralph Lauren have sold virtual versions of their products inside the platform since 2021, with items selling for roughly $0.50-$3. This is one reason why Walmart decided to open an e-commerce experience in Zepeto selling physical items in its No Boundaries collection last week. 

“When Pinterest rolled out their predictions for 2025, one of the trends that they identified was avatar aesthetic. They are seeing, on their platform, an increase in searches and pins for ways in which users can actually change their avatars, unlock codes for avatars, et cetera,” said Walmart head of brand marketing innovation Justin Breton. “That certainly applies on the ‘big three,’ but Zepeto particularly leans heavily into that notion.”

Running the numbers

Zepeto’s 20 million monthly active users and 400 million total users are nothing to sneeze at, but these figures are still dwarfed by the numbers reported by the big-three metaverse platforms. Fortnite reportedly has at least 650 million registered users, with 110 million monthly active users, according to figures publicly shared by the platform; Roblox’s monthly active user count stands at 380 million.

Roughly 15 percent of Zepeto users are located in the United States, according to Vogue. Compared to some of its competitors, the Korean-owned app has a more globally diverse user base; 65 percent of Zepeto’s users are in Asia — with the bulk of those users in China, though the specific proportion is unclear — making it the continent’s most popular metaverse platform. 

“With the main market being Asia-Pacific, and Europe and the U.S. being the biggest growth markets, it also makes sense that this is a new potential growth channel to connect directly with Gen Z where they spend time,” said Morgan Evans, the director of fashion and beauty for metaverse studio Karta.

Does Zepeto sell ads?

Like other metaverse platforms, Zepeto has begun to lean into advertising as a future revenue stream over the past year. The platform ran an advertising incentive pilot program between May and August of 2024, giving in-app creators a share of revenue from ads hosted inside their virtual worlds. Qualifying worlds with over 20,000 unique visitors received a cut of ad revenue in the form of Zepeto’s in-game currency, ZEMs, based on a sliding scale, with 30,000 ad views earning 5,000 ZEMs — or roughly $300 — and 50 million views earning creators 4 million ZEMs, or roughly $160,000.

Zepeto’s digital ad inventory currently consists of two formats: interstitial ads, which appear during loading screens between experiences, and immersive ads, which take the form of digital billboards within the virtual world. Zepeto has sold these ads, which are largely used by mobile game publishers, in partnership with Dentsu since 2024, with a direct sales model rather than a programmatic, self-serve approach.

Another way brands have advertised to Zepeto users is by paying the company to add virtual versions of their products to the platform. Brands that have advertised on Zepeto include DKNY, Samsung Electronics and Puma, along with a host of Korean brands across categories such as food and beauty.

In June 2024, Zepeto launched a global brand partnership program intended to grow the presence of brands on the platform and capture more marketing dollars. The initial cohort of partners included prominent metaverse studios such as Sawhorse, Dubit, Dentsu and The Gang, all of whom are also part of the Roblox Partner Program. 

“We believe all consumer brands will eventually have a presence on virtual platforms like ours, and our mission is to help spread successful activations faster to a larger cohort of companies and industries,” said Zepeto head of business development Ricky Kang in the company’s official release announcing the program. “By partnering with leading, innovative companies in the field, we are confident that we can scale impactful brand experiences that resonate with our curious and creative user base.”