According to figures released by the Ministry of Science and ICT on Wednesday, digital industry sales accounted for 15.2 percent of all industry sales of 9,038 trillion won and exceeded half of the country's total manufacturing revenue.
Digital foundation industries, spanning telecom and information and communication technology equipment, led the way with 615.8 trillion won, a 15.6 percent jump driven by swelling global AI investment and buoyant semiconductor exports.
Digital platform providers logged 152.4 trillion won, up 15.2 percent, with e-commerce, portals and content services proving the busiest fields.
Firms relying on brokerage platforms earned 214.1 trillion won, though about 60 percent flagged the mounting cost of listing across multiple platforms as their biggest headache.
Automation, however, remains nascent: while kiosk ordering has spread through lodging and restaurants, robot serving reached just 0.4 percent of businesses surveyed.
"The fact that digital industry sales keep climbing by more than 100 trillion won every year shows that digital transformation is spreading vigorously across our industries," said Lee Do-gyu, the ministry's director-general for information and communication policy.
"We expect this trend to accelerate further with the AI transition."
The survey, conducted by the ministry and the Korea Information Society Development Institute, polled about 10,323 businesses nationwide over four months from September to December last year through online, telephone and in-person interviews.
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