Worldcoin, the digital identity project that Sam Altman helped to start, is moving its attention from Europe to other parts of the world, especially Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Latin America (LATAM). The executive director of Worldcoin Europe, Fabian Bodensteiner, recently said that the company sees more possibilities in these areas because the governments are more open to new technologies.
Bodensteiner said at the Sifted Summit that adding markets in Europe is not a top concern for Worldcoin. “We just see a larger dynamic in other regions of the world, and because we’re a small team, we need to focus where we see the biggest business potential,” he stated.
Vice governor @lucasaromero was the first World ID verification at the Worldcoin launch in Misiones, Argentina 🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/mRIe3kPpT3
— Worldcoin (@worldcoin) September 28, 2024
Countries like Japan, Malaysia, and Argentina have been picked out by Worldcoin as good places to grow. The company is working with game producers in the APAC area to add its World ID digital identifying technology to gaming systems. Worldcoin wants a lot of people to use World ID, which is a “digital passport” that proves a person is a real person.
Worldcoin is still present in Europe, even though the company is focusing on APAC and LATAM. It just started giving WorldID checks to people in Poland and Austria. But Worldcoin has had problems in Europe, mostly because of worries about data privacy. The Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision (BayLDA) began looking into the project’s use of eye scans in July 2023. We think this investigation will be over soon, and the results could have a big effect on how Worldcoin does business in Europe.
Even with these problems with regulations, Bodensteiner made it clear that Worldcoin is not leaving Europe. “We want to make it work here. We’re committed to staying in the conversation and complying with the regulations,” he stated.
As Worldcoin continues to grow around the world, it wants to do well in places that are more open to new technologies. At the same time, it wants to deal with the problems caused by regulations in Europe.
