With the pandemic of the new coronavirus infection, telecommuting began in earnest. The influence of the 4th Industrial Revolution brought about a new civilization in the virtual world, a new digital world, with the development of IT. Such a virtual world has been established and developed not only in society, economy, and culture but also in the industry through technology development. However, there is not much research on the virtual world in Korea, and there is a lack of empirical research on user behavior through qualitative and quantitative research.
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to find out whether the variables of previous researchers affect the intention to use virtual real estate, considering that the development of the virtual world will change the real estate industry concentrated in various industries. To understand the usage behavior of virtual real estate users, this study referred to the variables of previous researchers used in information technology platforms representing IT unique characteristics and variables introduced in real estate investment characteristics. In this study, the causal relationship between practical value and user satisfaction was confirmed using ease, usefulness, playability, and profitability, which represent real estate characteristics, and the intention to use was confirmed using the structural model equation. This is the first study to empirically analyze the intention to use virtual real estate while users have a low understanding and lack of awareness of the virtual real estate platform from the perspective of virtual real estate, which is still in its early stages. As a result, IT developers need to develop innovative technologies that are more advanced than current technologies and quickly evolve them into the virtual world as well as the virtual world real estate industry.
The limitation of this study is that variables were selectively introduced according to investor preference characteristics in the existing real estate investment decision-making, and only a few variables were dealt with by combining the technology acceptance model with the metaverse study. However, we hope that this study will contribute to the development of research on the satisfaction of use in terms of the psychological and functional aspects of the virtual world, and will provide good data to understand the developers and users of the virtual real estate platform. Furthermore, it is considered to be the basis for verifying the relationship between various factors in a follow-up study to study the profit model of the virtual world.