Domestic O2O Service Market Including Delivery Apps Reaches 2.9 Trillion KRW... 30% Increase Year-on-Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] The domestic O2O service market, which connects online and offline services such as food ordering through mobile applications, is estimated to be close to 3 trillion won.

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 4th, a survey on O2O service market trends revealed that last year, the sales revenue of O2O service companies reached 2.9 trillion won, growing 30.4% compared to the previous year.

O2O services refer to services that connect online and offline in real-time to match suppliers and users, such as food ordering via apps, taxi and rental car calls, accommodation and leisure reservations, real estate contracts, and housekeeping requests. In Korea, these services officially began in 2011, and recently have been creating new added value in the platform economy by integrating new technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence (AI).

According to an analysis by the Ministry of Science and ICT of about 3,000 companies including internet and startup associations, app stores, and comprehensive corporate information portals, approximately 555 companies were identified as O2O service companies. The largest number of companies is in the lifestyle services sector with 179 companies, followed by mobility and logistics (121), manpower brokerage (100), accommodation and leisure (65), food and dining (47), and real estate (43).

The total number of employees is estimated at about 537,000, and the number of companies supplying services to O2O platforms is estimated at about 342,000. External service personnel account for about 521,000, representing 97% of the total workforce.

By service sector, sales revenue was highest in the food and dining sector at 840 billion won (28.4%), followed by mobility and logistics (22.5%), lifestyle services (17.4%), manpower brokerage (14.4%), accommodation and leisure (11.5%), and real estate (5.8%). The revenue models of companies include commissions, advertising fees, usage fees, sales revenue, regular usage fees, and membership fees, with most companies having two or more revenue models such as commissions and advertising revenue.

Last year, the transaction amount through O2O services was about 97 trillion won, showing a 22.3% growth compared to the previous year (about 79.3 trillion won). By service, the real estate sector had the highest sales at 34.9 trillion won (35.8%).

Park Yoon-kyu, Director of Information and Communication Policy, explained the background of this survey, saying, "O2O services are very closely related to the daily lives of the public and are rapidly growing worldwide. As the need to understand the related market has been continuously raised, this survey aims to systematically present the overall market status beyond pilot surveys." He added, "To activate O2O services in the future, we plan to operate a win-win forum involving stakeholders such as service providers, platform companies, and users, and will continue to monitor market trends to promote the growth of the O2O innovation industry."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.