Open AI (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/CCL)
SEOUL, Nov. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea has emerged as one of the world’s most lucrative markets for ChatGPT, generating the second-highest share of global revenue after the United States, according to new data released Wednesday by app-market analytics firm Sensor Tower.
While India accounted for the largest share of global ChatGPT app downloads this year at 15.7 percent, South Korea ranked a distant 21st with just 1.5 percent. But in revenue, the picture reversed dramatically: the United States led with 35.4 percent of global spending, followed by South Korea at 5.4 percent.
Sensor Tower attributed the outsize contribution to Korea’s exceptionally high spending per download, which averaged $8.70—virtually equal to the U.S. figure of $8.80 and the highest willingness-to-pay ratio among major markets.
Korean downloads of ChatGPT hit an all-time high in August, and revenue peaked again in October, the firm said. Between January 1 and November 20, ChatGPT was the most downloaded app in the Korean app market and the fourth-highest in revenue, an unusual feat in a ranking otherwise dominated by mobile games.
ChatGPT also leads the domestic AI assistant category in downloads, revenue and daily active users, outpacing Google’s Gemini app by a factor of two in downloads and eight in daily users.
Its web traffic in Korea has surged as well. ChatGPT ranked as the country’s fifth-most visited website, after YouTube, Naver, Google and Daum. Korean users spent an average of 367 minutes per month on the site—1.7 times longer than on Naver—suggesting that ChatGPT is evolving into a workspace rather than merely a search tool.
“Extended usage patterns show that Korean users are engaging in a wide range of productivity tasks, from document creation to planning and analysis,” Sensor Tower said. “For users in Korea, ChatGPT has become part of everyday workflow.”
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
