Domestic Cloud Revenue Surpasses KRW 9 Trillion: "Core Infrastructure in the AI Era"

The Ministry of Science and ICT and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency announced on March 30 that, as of 2024, the domestic cloud market generated revenue of KRW 9.2609 trillion, marking a 25.2% increase compared to the previous year’s KRW 7.4 trillion.

Ministry of Science and ICT logo. Provided by the Ministry of Science and ICT

According to the "2025 Cloud Industry Survey" released by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency, the domestic cloud sector recorded an average annual growth rate of 23.2% from 2020 to 2024. The growth rate for 2024 alone stood at 25.2%, surpassing the five-year average. By detailed service type, the 2024 revenue growth rates were: Cloud Management Services (CMS/MSP) at 31.4%, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) at 24.4%, Platform as a Service (PaaS) at 22%, and Software as a Service (SaaS) at 24.2%.

As of 2024, the number of cloud companies reached 2,712, an increase of 323 companies (13.5%) from the previous year. Of these, SaaS companies totaled 1,894, reflecting a 15.3% growth over the same period and accounting for 69.8% of all cloud businesses. The number of CMS companies rose by 47.9% during the same period, totaling 193, which is the highest growth rate among all service types. Among the 45 additional CMS companies, 35 had more than 30 employees.

The number of cloud professionals in 2024 reached 33,217, up by 2,563 (8.4%) from the previous year. The workforce has shown yearly growth, from 26,585 in 2022 to 30,654 in 2023. In detail, cloud developers accounted for the largest share at 11,146 (33.6%), followed by cloud operations (19.7%), planning, sales, and support (17.1%), cloud architects (15.6%), and cloud security (14.1%).

Based on this survey, the Ministry of Science and ICT plans to foster an artificial intelligence (AI) data center ecosystem by establishing a national AI computing center and supporting both the purchase and rental of graphics processing units (GPUs). In addition, the ministry will actively promote key projects that can generate cloud demand, such as an independent AI foundation model project and a one-stop voucher for AI transformation (AX).

Choi Dongwon, Director of the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Policy Division at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, "Domestic cloud market revenue has surpassed KRW 9 trillion, establishing itself as a core infrastructure in the AI era. We will actively work to ensure the continued growth of the private cloud market and the expansion of cloud adoption in the public sector in line with the increasing demand for cloud services, which is a critical foundation for national AI competitiveness."

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