Since Google unveiled its cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) model "Gemini 3" in Nov. last year, the number of users in Korea has increased rapidly. In particular, as paid subscriptions to Gemini rose among iPhone users, Korea ranked second after the United States in cumulative revenue.
According to market research firm Sensor Tower on the 23rd, based on mobile applications (iOS+Android), Gemini's cumulative downloads total 530 million, with Korea ranking 17th worldwide. In terms of app downloads alone, it is not a large market, but by revenue it placed near the top. Of Gemini's cumulative iOS revenue of about $21 million (about 30.8 billion won), the United States ranked first with 23.7%, and Korea took second with 11.4%, ahead of Japan (10%).
Analysts said this trend has become more pronounced since Google released "Gemini 3." Comparing daily usage as of Nov. 17 last year, the day before the launch of "Gemini 3," with Jan. 15 of this month, Korea's daily active users rose 103.7%, the highest growth rate among major countries was found. Over the same period, user growth was Japan (80%), the United States (57%), Turkey (52%), and India (42%) in that order.
Sensor Tower said, "Korea has the highest revenue per Gemini app download among major countries, and despite a smaller user base, it has emerged as a key market in terms of profitability and usage density," adding, "In particular, the launch of Gemini 3 two months ago appears to have had a direct impact on the pace of user growth."
The gap with ChatGPT, which holds the No. 1 spot among domestic AI chatbots, is also narrowing. Sensor Tower analyzed the average daily active users of the ChatGPT and Gemini apps for about a year from Jan. 1 last year to Jan. 15 this year, and found that the user gap between the two apps reached sevenfold, but in the two months after the launch of Gemini 3, that gap narrowed to fourfold.
Gemini's strong performance is evident on the web as well as in mobile apps. Sensor Tower said that by visits to Generative AI websites in Korea last year, ChatGPT ranked first and Gemini second, with the number of visits to the two websites about four times apart. However, looking only at Nov. to Dec. last year after the launch of Gemini 3, the visit gap narrowed to about 1.8 times.
Google's AI capabilities, represented by Gemini, are cited as a key driver of the company's recent earnings and stock gains. After ChatGPT appeared in Nov. 2023 and Google for a time was said to be "lagging behind OpenAI," the company successfully countered by rolling out the cutting-edge "Gemini 3" model last year and the well-received image generation model "Nano Banana" in quick succession.
Unlike OpenAI, Google has "full-stack" capabilities spanning search, cloud, data center infrastructure, video platform (YouTube), and AI chip design, and is seen as well positioned to popularize Gemini through performance improvements and broad applications. In fact, Google expanded access by offering Gemini for free in its "Workspace" subscription, which includes Gmail and Cloud Drive.
After Apple adopted Gemini as the base model for its "Apple Intelligence," expectations grew that Google, with its AI systems, would seize the upper hand in the global AI battle, and the market capitalization of Alphabet, Google's parent company, surpassed $4 trillion, the fourth in history after Nvidia, Microsoft, and Apple.
To expand AI market share, Google moved to slash prices at the end of last year. At the time, Google ran a promotion selling the paid "Google AI Pro" subscription—previously 348,000 won per year—at a roughly 60% discount for 140,000 won. The monthly subscription fee was also reduced from the existing 29,000 won to 9,500 won for the first three months. Google AI Pro is a subscription product that includes the latest AI features such as "Gemini 3 Pro," the image generation model "Nano Banana Pro," the AI video generation tool "Veo 3" series, and the deep report writing feature "Deep Research." It also comes with 2TB of cloud storage usable in Google Drive, Gmail, and Photos.
Industry watchers believe Google's aggressive discount strategy helped attract paid subscribers in Korea. However, in Korea, Gemini's growth did not come from taking users from ChatGPT; rather, industry officials said a trend stood out in which heavy AI users used ChatGPT and Gemini in parallel.
An AI industry official said, "ChatGPT still leads by a large margin in the number of users in Korea, but as Google strengthens Gemini's usability based on familiar services such as search, it has begun to have a direct impact on the competitive landscape of Korea's Generative AI market."