Korea’s IoT market to surge to W17tr by 2020

[THE INVESTOR] Korea’s market for Internet of Things services is expected to surge from the current 3.3 trillion won (US$ 3 billion) to 17.1 trillion won by 2020, a think tank predicted on July 12.

The forecast means the nation’s IoT market will grow at an annual average of 38.5 percent in the next five years, outpacing 28.8 percent of the global market. 

Hyundai Research Institute pinpointed smart home, smart city and smart car as top three promising industries in an era of the IoT technology that connects all machines from smartphones to TVs and cars via the Internet.

Especially smart city alone is expected to become a whopping US$1.65 trillion market by 2020.

The research center said Korean people show more willingness to purchase related devices or adopt new technologies. However, 93 percent of Korean respondents expressed concerns about privacy, compared to the global average of 47 percent.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)