By Kang Seung-woo
Combined revenue of the nation’s internet of things (IoT) companies posted a sharp increase of 23.4 percent last year thanks to increasing domestic demand for the connected-device technology, a recent government survey showed, Wednesday.
According to the data from the Ministry of Science and ICT, domestic sales and exports of the IoT companies reached 7.2 trillion won ($6.6 billion) in 2017, compared with 5.8 trillion won from the previous year.
The survey was based on 528 firms.
IoT refers to a network of physical objects, including vehicles, buildings and electronic devices connected to the internet for the exchange of data. It allows such objects to be monitored and controlled remotely.
The survey shows a majority of IoT sales came from the local market as domestic sales advanced by 22.7 percent year-on-year to 6.65 trillion won, while IoT exports logged 510 billion won after witnessing a 34.6 percent increase during the same period. The amount of IoT imports stood at 25.5 billion won, up 3.2 percent from a year earlier.
Almost half of the combined revenue, or 47.8 percent, came from device manufacturers, followed by IoT service providers at 21.3 percent. Sales of platform and network companies accounted for 15.5 percent and 15.4 percent, respectively.
In particular, the proportion of service providers saw a 7 percentage point increase last year as more industries such as manufacturing, retail and logistics and transportation adopted the technology.
Despite the expansion, IoT companies felt a lack of support from the government, according to the survey.
They picked the government’s insufficient policy support as the biggest difficulty in their business at 23 percent and a lack of funds also troubled them at 22.4 percent, the study showed.
Along with these, the absence of business models, inadequate standardization and uncertain marketability are problems that concerned IoT firms.
The latest findings also showed the number of people hired by IoT companies stood at 479,734 last year.
According to industry tracker International Data Corporation, global IoT spending is expected to total nearly $1.4 trillion by 2021 as organizations continue to invest in the hardware, software, services and connectivity that enable IoT.