Synopsis

The widespread adoption of the Internet in South Korea coupled with the continued pace of development has resulted in an exciting digital economy. This report looks at various aspects of the digital economy in South Korea that support the drive to converged services. It includes statistics on e-commerce users and market size, e-banking and online trading; a review of e-entertainment and various e-services such as online shopping learning, gaming and music. The report also contains information on internet usage patterns and provides internet statistics and forecasts to 2019.

Key Developments:

• internet usage rate (population penetration) approaches 80% and over 82% of households have PC access;
• increased internet adoption in the over 40, 50 and 60 age brackets;
• usage of Desktop computers for online shopping is falling while usage of smartphones for online shopping is rising;
• B2B transactions make up over 90% of total e-commerce transactions;
• Profile based SNS have increased in popularity at the expense of other forms of SNS;

Companies covered in this report include:

KT; LG Telecom; NHN; Nexon; NCsoft; Neowiz; CJ Internet; CyWorld; Naver; Daum; Google; Nate; Yahoo.