Samsung SDS has risen to No. 2 in South Korea's public cloud market, overtaking Microsoft (MS). Samsung SDS is the only local provider to post a double-digit market share.

An IDC report titled "2024 South Korea Public Cloud Service (CSP) Market Share", released on April 12, puts 2024 revenue in the South Korean public cloud market at 6.237 trillion won.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) kept the top spot with 1.372 trillion won in revenue and a 22.0 percent share. Samsung SDS took second place with 703.0 billion won and an 11.3 percent share. It was followed by MS on 9.6 percent (601.0 billion won), Naver on 5.0 percent (311.0 billion won) and KT on 2.0 percent (126.0 billion won).

Samsung SDS also posted the highest growth rate among major providers, up 29.4 percent from a year earlier. MS (28.6 percent), AWS (24.9 percent), Naver (18.3 percent) and KT (15.4 percent) also sustained double-digit growth.

Samsung SDS' advance is attributed to its diversified business structure. Cloud services based on the Samsung Cloud Platform (SCP), the generative AI platform FabriX and the AI-based collaboration solution Brity Works together supported its performance.

The IDC report calculates market share by adding up revenue from infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS). An "integrated CSP" that spans infrastructure as well as platforms and software has a relatively advantageous structure.

Competition differs by segment. In IaaS, AWS maintains a dominant lead with 52.6 percent, while Samsung SDS (15.3 percent), Naver (7.8 percent), KT (6.0 percent) and MS (4.9 percent) follow. In PaaS, AWS (19.2 percent) and MS (13.9 percent) are closely matched. In SaaS, Samsung SDS (12.3 percent) and MS (11.3 percent) are competing for the lead.

IDC forecasts the South Korean public cloud market will grow 18.9 percent in 2025 to 7.4 trillion won, and expand at an average annual rate of 18.6 percent through 2029 to reach 14.6 trillion won.