Last Year, IoT Industry Sales Surpassed 10 Trillion Won for the First Time

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Cho] Last year, the Internet of Things (IoT) industry sales exceeded 10 trillion won for the first time in history.

According to the 2019 IoT Industry Survey results announced by the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 25th, last year's sales amounted to 10.9379 trillion won, a 16.2% increase compared to the previous year. The average annual growth rate over the past five years reached 23.7%.

Domestic sales were 9.734 trillion won, up 14.9% from the previous year. This accounts for 89.0% of total sales. The average annual growth rate from 2015 to 2019 was 21.9%. Exports reached 1.2039 trillion won, a 27.4% increase compared to the previous year. The average growth rate from 2015 to 2019 was recorded at 46.3%. The Ministry of Science and ICT expects this high growth trend to continue through the development and dissemination of innovative new technologies applicable to various fields.

The number of surveyed companies was 2,313, a 17.5% increase from the previous year. These include 431 companies in the platform sector, 131 in networks, 525 in product devices, and 1,226 in services.

Among the four business sectors, the product devices sector (4.4796 trillion won, 41.0%) recorded the highest sales. The highest sales growth rate compared to the previous year was in the network sector (1.8815 trillion won, 25.2%), followed by the platform sector (1.7092 trillion won, 19.8%). With the commercialization of 5G at the beginning of last year, IoT-related businesses have been activated, which is evaluated to have contributed to the increase in network sales.

The service sector (2.8677 trillion won) was led by construction, facility management, safety, and environment (1.0928 trillion won, 38.1%), which accounted for the largest share due to the expansion of smart city services through facility management.

Additionally, the domestic IoT-related workforce reached 77,734, an increase of 3,793 compared to the previous year. The estimated required workforce for 2020 employment plans is about 4,300.

The Ministry of Science and ICT has been conducting the IoT industry survey annually as part of the national statistical survey since 2014.

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