'SNS Marketing' Trend... Patent Applications Increase by 28% Annually on Average

Example materials of technologies related to marketing using SNS. Provided by the Korean Intellectual Property Office.

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] As marketing using Social Network Service (SNS) becomes a trend, the number of related patent applications is also increasing accordingly.

According to the Korean Intellectual Property Office on the 16th, a total of 156 patents related to SNS-based marketing were filed from 2015 to 2020.

By year, there were around 20 applications each year, with 16 in 2015, 24 in 2016, and 21 in 2017, but the number surged to 31 in 2018, 39 in 2019, and 55 in 2020.

This represents an average annual growth rate of 28% over the past five years, and already 18 SNS marketing-related patents were filed last month this year.

The most common case of SNS-based marketing is recommending personalized products by extracting information from SNS (49 related patents from 2015 to 2021).

Additionally, the Korean Intellectual Property Office identifies that viral marketing, also known as word-of-mouth marketing (33 related patents), and influencer marketing leveraging SNS influence (48 related patents) hold significant shares.

The annual growth of the SNS marketing market size is also interpreted as a factor influencing the increase in related patent applications.

In fact, the global digital marketing intelligence service company WARC estimates that worldwide SNS advertising expenditure reached $102.4 billion last year, growing 19.5% compared to the previous year. This accounts for 15.5% of the total advertising market.

Lee Chung-geun, an examiner at the Electronic Commerce Examination Division of the Korean Intellectual Property Office, said, “The rapid growth of the SNS marketing market surpasses the growth rates of traditional media advertising markets such as TV, radio, and newspapers. Especially with COVID-19 making personalization and customization the trend, the SNS marketing market will continue to grow, and related patent applications are expected to steadily increase.”

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