- Digital industry sales reached 1,378 trillion won in 2024, up 117.2 trillion won (9.3%) from 2023

※ Digital Industry Sales (unit: trillion won): 1,142 (2022) → 1,261 (10.5%↑, 2023) → 1,378 (9.3%↑) in 2024

- Digital maturity, the degree of using and innovating digital technology, stood at 75.4%.

The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister: Bae Kyung-hoon) announced the results of “2025 Digital Industry Survey (The Ministry of Data and Statistics (MODS)’s Approval No. 127021),” which was conducted jointly with the Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI, President: Rhee Sang-kyu) to comprehensively analyze the scale and status of Korea’s digital industry in 2024.

This is the third publication of the Digital Industry Survey since it was designated as a nationally approved statistic in 2023. The survey was conducted over four months (September–December 2025) covering 10,323 businesses nationwide through a combination of online, telephone, and in-person (on-site) surveys, followed by a process of data refinement, analysis, and compilation into statistical reports (January–June 2026).

Key survey findings show that the digital industry’s sales revenue in 2024 reached 1,378 trillion won, accounting for 15.2% of total industrial revenue (9,038 trillion won according to the MODS’s nationwide business survey published in May 2026), up 9.3% from the previous year (1,261 trillion won). The figure exceeds half of total manufacturing industry revenue (53.1%)*.

When it comes to structure and behavior, digital maturity, which refers to the level of organizations’ digital technology use and innovation, stood at 75.4%, up 10.8 percentage points from the previous year (64.6%). This simultaneous growth in both sales and innovation confirms that the shift toward a digital economy is spreading across industries as a whole.

* Manufacturing revenue: 2,598 trillion won (the MODS’s nationwide business survey published in May 2026)

The digital industry consists of 1) digital-based industries, 2) digital platform supply industries, 3) industries using digital intermediary platforms, and 4) digital-related industries. The analysis results for each industry are as follows. 

1) Digital-based industries (Sales: 615.8 trillion won, 15.6%↑)

Digital-based industries are industries that produce or supply digital infrastructure including equipment using digital technology and communications, and can be considered the conventional information and communications technology (ICT) sector. Thanks to the expansion of global AI investment and the increase in exports of ICT products such as semiconductors, digital-based industries recorded the highest sales revenue among the digital industry’s four major categories.

2) Digital platform supply industries (Sales: 152.4 trillion won, 15.2%↑)

Digital platform supply industries are industries that use digital technology to plan and supply content and to provide information services and intermediary functions. Sales in this category rose year-on-year, driven by the spread of AI and digitalization. The survey found that, based on each company’s primary revenue-generating business, platform providers whose primary revenue source was e-commerce platform services accounted for 29.0%, followed by portal services (23.3%) and video, audio, and information content services (22.4%). In terms of sales by revenue source, fees accounted for the largest share (42.6%), followed by direct purchase and sales (36.8%), advertising (9.8%), and subscription and usage fees (9.1%).

3) Industries using digital intermediary platforms (Sales: 214.1 trillion won, 14.3%↑)

Industries using digital intermediary platforms are industries where most demand for products and services relies on digital platforms, consisting of businesses that use digital intermediary platforms such as wholesale and retail, accommodation business, and foodservice. Sales in this category increased alongside those of digital platform supply industries. In particular, 91.9% of platform users used two or more platforms at the same time (with 46.4% using four or more). They cited the growing cost burden of listing on multiple platforms (60.2%) as their biggest challenge. Kiosk order (28.9%) and payment (26.2%) have become widespread in accommodation and foodservice businesses, while robot serving and customer service remain at an early stage with only 0.4% of adoption, indicating that on-site automation is still at an early stage.

4) Digital-related industries (Sales: 396.1 trillion won, △3.1%)

Digital-related industries are industries that use digital technology to produce and provide conventional industrial products and services through digital methods. They mainly consist of digital retail (45.8 trillion won) centered on self-operated online shopping malls, and digital finance and insurance services (350.2 trillion won) centered on non-face-to-face financial transactions. Notably, sales in this category decreased from the previous year. This is attributed to the fact that digital retail businesses, which had depended on their own sales channels, diversified into sales through digital intermediary platforms.

Digital maturity, measured as the degree to which organizations use and innovate with digital technology, stood at 75.4%, up 10.8 percentage points from 64.6% the previous year. Looking at this by stage, “entry into and settlement of digitalization” — a stage in which organizations try out and experiment with digital technology in their operations before undergoing organization-wide digital transformation — accounted for 67.7%, while “entry into and settlement of digital transformation” — a stage in which digital innovation-driven organizations develop new services and products and respond swiftly to digital change — accounted for 7.7%. This indicates that overall digitalization levels have improved.

* Digital maturity: The degree to which a company uses and innovates with digital technology at the organizational level. It is the sum of the percentages of companies in the entry into and settlement of digitalization stage and those in the entry into and settlement of digital transformation stage.

**(The entry into and settlement of digitalization stage) 61.4% in 2023 → 67.7% in 2024

(The entry into and settlement of digital transformation) 3.1% in 2023 → 7.7% in 2024

An analysis of the status of digital technology development and adoption over the past three years showed that companies in the digital industry have developed in-house or introduced from outside cloud computing (52.0%), AI (43.5%), and big data (29.1%) technologies, in that order, while also hiring new employees with relevant expertise.

This digitalization is part of a continuous progression from computerization to digital transformation (DX). Recently, the rate of utilizing AI technology in decision-making and business activities has reached 24.9%, up from 15.5% the previous year. In addition, AI accounted for 43.5% of the new digital technologies developed and adopted over the past three years. This confirms that AI transformation (AX) is deepening as part of the broader digitalization process.

“The fact that digital industry sales have consistently grown by more than 100 trillion won each year clearly shows that digital transformation (DX) is actively spreading across our industries,” said Lee Do-kyu, Deputy Minister for ICT Policy at MSIT.

“This trend is expected to accelerate further due to AX,” he continued adding, “In line with these changes, the government will systematically provide relevant policy support so that no one in our society is left behind in this transformation.”

The results of 2025 Digital Industry Survey can be found on the MSIT (www.msit.go.kr) and KISDI (www.kisdi.re.kr) websites.

For further information, please contact the Public Relations Division (Phone: +82-44-202-4034, E-mail: msitmedia@korea.kr) of the Ministry of Science and ICT.

Please refer to the attached PDF.