Total transaction volume reached 126 trillion won! South Korea's O2O services grew rapidly during the epidemic

South Korea's online-to-offline ( O2O) services achieved rapid growth as the household economy boomed during the pandemic last year, government data showed on Thursday.

Total transaction volume created through local O2O services reached 126 trillion won ($112.83 billion) last year, up 29.6 percent from 97 trillion won a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT.

It is reported that the service provided by O2O is that people can use mobile applications to order, call taxis, rent cars, book accommodation, relax, sign real estate contracts, etc. anytime and anywhere.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that the number of O2O service companies increased from 555 in 2019 to 678 last year. There were 189 companies in the fields of entertainment, sports, culture and education, accounting for 27.9% of all fields, ranking first. Next were transportation services (22.6%) , personal finance (18.7%), catering, accommodation (11.8%), house rental, broadcasting (11.4%), housework, cleaning (5.8%), etc.

The Ministry of Science and ICT believes that the growth is mainly due to the expansion of transactions in South Korea's e-commerce and food delivery sectors amid the epidemic .

It is understood that the transaction volume of the two industries increased by 23.7% year-on-year to 35.3 trillion won. Last year, the transaction volume of the food delivery sector alone reached 20.2 trillion won, up from 14 trillion won in 2019.

In addition, data showed that O2O service providers' total sales reached 3.5 trillion won last year, up 18.3% from 2.97 trillion won in 2019.

It is understood that the number of companies selling goods and services through O2O platforms increased from 342,000 in 2019 to 533,000 last year, an increase of 55.6%. However, this figure includes companies that cooperate with multiple platforms.

Last year, the number of catering and accommodation facilities cooperating with O2O services reached 359,000, accounting for 67.4% of all enterprises cooperating with O2O services , while personal care and beauty product retailers and financial service providers cooperating with O2O services accounted for 12.9%.

"Through this survey, we have confirmed that the growth of non-face-to-face demand and the digital economy are accelerating due to the pandemic ," the Ministry of Science and ICT said.

South Korea

Total transaction volume

on-line

epidemic