Lee, a 35-year-old office worker living in Seoul, has been using household services through a cleaning platform once every three weeks recently. When returning home exhausted from frequent overtime, there is no energy left to clean. At first, there was the burden of a stranger entering the home and concerns about privacy violations, but after using it a few times, the view changed. Lee said, "With about 130,000 won every month or two, I can keep my home clean," adding, "I have come to see the cleaning expense not as a simple expenditure but as a 'necessary living cost' that buys my rest time."
With the rise of single-person households, the "outsourcing of housework" is entering everyday life. A housekeeper service once used mainly by middle-class multi-person households has recently taken hold as an essential means of maintaining daily life among single-person households in the younger generation. Analysts say it is becoming more common to choose to handle cleaning efficiently via platforms rather than giving up on it.
According to the app analytics platform Mobile Index on the 17th, last month's monthly active users (MAU) of Miso, a leading cleaning platform in Korea, totaled 213,586. That is more than double the figure from March 2021 (97,965). During the same period, the number of active devices with the app installed also soared more than 2.5 times, from 500,000 to 1.26 million. It means the service's base itself has broadened beyond a simple rise in users.
The cleaning-dedicated platform "Cheongso Yeonguso" shows a similar trend. Cheongso Yeonguso's MAU has recently stayed in the 80,000–90,000 range, forming a loyal user base. The number of active devices also traced an upward curve, from about 340,000 in March 2021 to 512,987 last month. The assessment is that it has settled in as everyday infrastructure used regularly, not a service used only at a specific point in time. In March, Cheongso Yeonguso expanded its service area from the six major metropolitan cities to Gangwon Province, including Chuncheon and Wonju.
By user age, the "2030 generation" accounts for an overwhelming share. As of last month, Cheongso Yeonguso's MAU among people in their 30s was 27,077, the highest of any age group, followed by those in their 20s (23,760). Younger users also drove the growth rate. Since 2021, MAU among people in their 20s has risen about 96%, and among those in their 30s about 29%, showing clear growth. By contrast, gains among those in their 40s were relatively limited, and those in their 50s were flat.
A Cheongso Yeonguso official said, "People in their 20s and 30s have a high share of single-person households and strong demand to manage their own spaces regularly," adding, "In particular, residents of studio apartments or small dwellings are getting used to subscription-style use of professional services on a regular basis, rather than doing a big clean all at once."
The growth of Soomgo, a platform that brokers a wide range of everyday services, also stood out. Soomgo's MAU nearly doubled from about 320,000 in March 2021 to 630,103 in January this year. The number of active devices rose from 990,000 to 3.55 million over the same period. The shift reflects Soomgo, once known as a lessons and hobbies platform, expanding its user share into housework categories such as moving, cleaning, and organizing and storage.
This expansion in platform use tracks with the rise of single-person households. According to the Ministry of Data and Statistics (MODS), last year single-person households numbered 8,045,000, accounting for 36.1% of all households, a record high. In particular, with economically active single-person households exceeding 5.1 million, demand to pay an expense to secure time, rather than doing everyday housework directly, is translating into increased app usage. Cleaning apps are shifting from services used only for specific events (moving or major cleanings) to "always-on lifestyle platforms" that maintain the residential environment of single-person households.
A platform industry official said, "For people in their 30s, not only are there many single-person households, but it is also a period when work life overlaps with marriage and child-rearing, so the share of dual-income households is high, and demand to outsource housework is growing the fastest," adding, "As a generation that has used proxy services across everyday life, such as delivery and laundry, house cleaning has naturally joined the outsourcing trend."