South Korea's digital industry posted sales of 1.378 trillion won in 2024, up 9.3 percent from a year earlier.

The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI) on Tuesday released results of the 2025 Digital Industry Survey, which analyzed the size and status of South Korea's digital industry in 2024.

The survey put 2024 digital industry sales at a total of 1.378 trillion won. That equals 15.2 percent of total industry sales of 9.038 trillion won. It was up 117.2 trillion won from 1.261 trillion won a year earlier. After 1.142 trillion won in 2022 and 1.261 trillion won in 2023, sales rose by more than 100 trillion won for a second straight year.

Digital industry sales were 53.1 percent of total manufacturing sales of 2.598 trillion won. The ministry said the digital economy transition is spreading across industries as both sales 규모 and the level of innovation grow.

By segment, sales in digital-based industries were the largest at 615.8 trillion won. Digital-based industries cover existing ICT industries that produce or provide the digital base, including equipment using digital technology and telecommunications. Sales rose 15.6 percent from a year earlier, supported by expanded global AI investment and increased ICT exports such as semiconductors.

Sales in digital platform provision industries rose 15.2 percent from a year earlier to 152.4 trillion won. Sales increased mainly in e-commerce platform services, portal services and video, audio and information content provision services, in line with the spread of AI and digitalization. By revenue type, commissions were the largest at 42.6 percent. Direct purchase sales were 36.8 percent, advertising 9.8 percent and subscriptions and usage fees 9.1 percent, the survey showed.

Sales in industries using digital intermediary platforms increased 14.3 percent from a year earlier to 214.1 trillion won. The category includes businesses such as wholesale and retail, lodging and restaurants that use digital intermediary platforms. Some 91.9 percent of users were using 2 or more platforms at the same time. Businesses using 4 or more platforms accounted for 46.4 percent. The share that cited higher cost burdens from operating on multiple platforms as a difficulty was 60.2 percent.

The survey also found wider use of kiosk ordering and payments in lodging and restaurants. The usage rate was 28.9 percent for kiosk ordering and 26.2 percent for payments. Robot serving and customer service use was 0.4 percent, suggesting on-site automation remains at an early stage.

Sales in digital-related industries fell 3.1 percent from a year earlier to 396.1 trillion won. Digital-related industries comprise digital retail based on companies' own online shopping malls, and digital finance and insurance focused on non-face-to-face financial transactions. The ministry attributed the decline to digital retail centered on own sales channels pursuing diversified sales routes by joining digital intermediary platforms.

Digital maturity, a measure of how much organizations use and innovate with digital technology, stood at 75.4 percent. That was up 10.8 percentage points from 64.6 percent a year earlier. By stage, 67.7 percent were in the entry and settlement stage of digitalization, while 7.7 percent were in the entry and settlement stage of digital transformation.

Over the past 3 years, digital industry companies developed or introduced cloud computing at 52.0 percent, AI at 43.5 percent and big data at 29.1 percent, the survey showed.

The share that applies AI technology to decision-making and sales activities rose to 24.9 percent from 15.5 percent a year earlier. The ministry said the trend shows a deepening of AI transformation (AX) during the digitalization process.

The digital industry survey was published for the third time this year since being designated as a nationally approved statistic in 2023. The latest survey covered 10,323 businesses nationwide and was conducted from September to December last year using a mix of online, phone and in-person methods. It went through data supplementation and analysis and preparation of a statistical report from January to June this year.

Lee Do-gyu (이도규), head of information and communications policy at the ministry, said, "Digital industry sales continuing to increase by more than 100 trillion won every year shows that digital transformation (DX) is actively spreading across industries." He added, "The government will also systematically push ahead with related policy support so that no member of our society is left behind in line with these changes."