9 out of 10 People Use 'Electronic Government Services'... Satisfaction Rate at 98%

Ministry of the Interior and Safety Announces Results of E-Government Service Usage Survey

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Over the past year, 9 out of 10 citizens used electronic government services, and 98% of those users expressed satisfaction with the services.

On the 24th, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, together with the Korea Intelligent Information Society Agency, announced the results of a usage survey covering awareness, usage rate, and satisfaction of electronic government services frequently used by the public in 2021. The "2021 Electronic Government Service Usage Survey" was conducted from October 1 to November 15 last year, targeting 4,000 citizens aged 16 to 74 nationwide through a combination of household visit interviews and online surveys.

The survey results showed that awareness of electronic government services was 96.5%, usage rate was 89.5%, and satisfaction was 97.8%. Compared to the previous year, awareness and usage rates increased by 0.8 percentage points and 0.6 percentage points respectively, while satisfaction decreased by 0.3 percentage points. Awareness and usage rates among the digitally disadvantaged group aged 60 and above rose by more than 5 percentage points compared to the previous year.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety analyzed that "this was likely because online applications and reservations were possible at different times for programs such as the COVID-19 coexistence support fund and vaccine appointment reservations, eliminating the need to queue at offline counters." They also noted that "as the usage gap between age groups narrows and electronic government services become more widespread, there remains the challenge of ensuring that digitally disadvantaged groups or service blind spots do not exist."

The most frequently used electronic government service mobile apps were Sontax (86.6%), Government24 (74.8%), and Road Name Address (57.1%), followed by Cube (55.6%), a newly launched service influenced by COVID-19. Additionally, the most frequently used electronic government service websites were Hometax (88.6%), Government24 (80.9%), and National Health Insurance (58.2%), with the newly established Disease Control Agency (50.2%) also ranking, confirming the significant impact of COVID-19 on daily life.

Regarding the quality of electronic government services, 97.8% of users expressed overall satisfaction (average 2.2%, dissatisfaction 0.0%), citing promptness (62.1%, quick processing of tasks) and usefulness (56.2%, provision of necessary information or services) as the main reasons for satisfaction. The slight decline in satisfaction is attributed to user inconvenience caused by connection failures during the COVID-19 vaccine pre-registration period.

Furthermore, trends in the use of major electronic government services confirmed changes in daily life toward "contactless normalization." Compared to the previous year, usage of delivery-related services such as Post Office Shopping Mall (up 7.7 percentage points) and New Address/Address Search (up 8.8 percentage points) increased, while travel and mobility-related services such as Korail Talk (down 15.1 percentage points), Korea Tour (down 12.8 percentage points), and Expressway Traffic Information (down 8.6 percentage points) decreased.

Usage of newly launched services last year, including Electronic Certificates (launched in February), National Secretary (launched in March), and Subsidy24 (launched in April), was also surveyed. Seven out of ten citizens responded that they had heard of or were aware of these services, with the National Secretary showing relatively high awareness (77.6%), usage rate (44.2%), and future usage intention (63.3%) across all age groups.

Seo Boram, Director of the Digital Government Bureau at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, stated, "Starting with the pilot issuance of mobile driver’s licenses in January this year, we plan to expand more useful notification and consultation services through the National Secretary and fully launch public MyData services that do not require document printing." She added, "We intend to use the results of this survey to introduce electronic government services that are widely sought after and more convenient for the public."

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