The South Korea market is a highly saturated and lucrative one. There are over 40 million smartphone users in the country who spend more than five hours on mobile apps each day on average.
Unlike a lot of other countries which have the same American mega-apps, such as Google, Amazon and Facebook, South Korea has its own local options, from Naver to Kakao for search, maps, payments and messaging to Coupang for ecommerce and Beamin for food delivery.
This highly localized app economy is also present in the games, with Odin: Valhalla Rising, Lineage M and Mabinogi all developed specifically for the Korean market.
South Korea has been at the forefront of trying to break up the app store duopoly of Google and Apple, fining Google $32 million for allegedly blocking the release of mobile video games on the competitor platform One Store. South Korea has also warned Google and Apple of possible fines of up to $50 million for unfair practices against app developers.
With this diversified set of services, South Korea is a much different app economy to the rest of the world. App developers need to be aware of the language and culture to entice South Koreans, and will most likely find themselves up against very well prepared and popular local options.
We have collected data and statistics on the South Korean mobile app market. Read on below to find out more.
Key South Korea App Market Statistics
- South Korea's app economy generated $6.3 billion revenue in 2024, an increase of 3.2%
- The average South Korean spent $143 on apps in 2024
- 44 million South Koreans own a smartphone and access apps
- Lineage M was the top grossing app in 2024, with $257 million revenue
- Approximately 1.7 billion apps were downloaded in South Korea in 2024
- The average South Korean smartphone user downloaded 40 apps in 2024
- Temu was the most downloaded app in South Korea in 2024, with 17.2 million downloads
- South Koreans accessed the internet for five hours 22 minutes on average
- About 62% of all internet consumption happens on mobile in South Korea
- The average cellular speed in South Korea was 148Mbps, one of the highest averages worldwide
