Ministry of SMEs Supports Online Sales Channels for 100,000 Small Businesses This Year

Recruitment Announcement for Small Business Owners
for the 2025 Online Market Expansion Support Project

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 17th that it will implement the recruitment announcement for small business owners for the '2025 Small Business Online Market Expansion Support Project,' which supports small business owners' entry into the online market and development of sales channels.

Since 2019, the Ministry has operated the ‘Small Business Online Market Expansion Support Project’ for six years, selecting 492,000 small business owners and supporting the entire process of online advancement, including education to strengthen online capabilities, channel entry, and the establishment and operation of comprehensive online infrastructure.

This year, up to 100,000 small business owners, including those utilizing online infrastructure such as Sodam Square, will be selected and supported. Applicants must be small business owners as defined by Article 2 of the Small Business Act, and selection will be made through a comprehensive evaluation of product competitiveness, business participation capabilities, and other criteria according to each project’s evaluation standards.

In particular, starting this year, one-on-one on-site education will be expanded for digitally vulnerable groups aged 50 and above, and the education hours at digital specialized universities will be shortened to reduce the educational burden on small business owners. Collaborative education with platform companies will also be newly introduced to provide customized training tailored to excellent platforms with high domestic and international consumer usage rates.

When entering online malls, focused support will be provided for time deals that exclusively expose small business products, and a direct purchase consultation meeting will be newly established to enhance the effectiveness of support projects by offering opportunities for direct delivery to large distributors through ‘Distributor MD-Small Business Owner Matching.’ The global package project will also be reorganized to allow small business owners to directly select and configure necessary business contents for initial overseas expansion, such as overseas market analysis, translation, and consulting, and outstanding performers will receive support for entry into overseas shopping malls and linkage to global showrooms, supporting small business owners’ step-by-step overseas expansion.

Hwang Young-ho, Head of the Small Business Management Stability Support Group, stated, “As the consumption and distribution structure is reorganized around online platforms, utilizing online platforms is essential to strengthening the competitiveness of small business owners,” and “through the Online Market Expansion Support Project, we will promote small business owners’ online entry and adaptation, and strengthen support so that small business owners can grow into small enterprises.” he said.

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