[2020 National Audit] Small Business App Developed with 400 Million Won, Unresponsive and Low Usage Rate

Democratic Party Lawmaker Lee Sung-man: "Wasting Public Taxes on Apps for Performance... Alternatives Like Consolidation Needed"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Wondara] It has been pointed out that applications exclusively for small business owners, developed with 430 million KRW of national funds, are virtually being neglected.

According to the 'Mobile Application Usage Status' submitted by the Small Enterprise and Market Service to Lee Seong-man, a member of the National Assembly's Industry, Trade, and Small and Medium Venture Business Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, the 'Attractive Our Market' app, developed in 2014 with 312.9 million KRW, is found to be non-functional and abandoned.

The 'Nadeulgage' app, developed in the same year with 27.5 million KRW to enhance the competitiveness of small-scale retailers, showed low usage with a total of 8,000 downloads and an average of 61 daily visitors. The 'Sosangongin Madang' app, developed in 2015 with 89.8 million KRW, had 148,000 downloads and an average of 918 daily visitors, but it was merely a mobile version of the Sosangongin Madang website.

Lee’s office also pointed out that the apps created by the same organization are not compatible with each other, requiring users to create new accounts, and that the lack of an integrated management system responsible for app usage causes significant inconvenience to users.

Lee emphasized, “Apps are being created just to accumulate simple achievements without proper management, leading to a waste of taxpayers' money,” and added, “If necessary, apps should be consolidated or abolished, and measures should be prepared on how to manage the apps from now on.”

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