It was found that overseas downloads of applications (apps) developed in Korea reached 1.8 billion last year.
Google Korea on the 5th released this information, citing the report "Korea's digital gateway: the impact of Google Play and Android on the Korean economy in 2025" by the global consulting firm Public First. During the same period, domestic downloads were about 730 million.
India (365 million) was the main country that downloaded Korean apps the most. It was followed by Brazil (123 million), Indonesia (131 million), the United States (77 million), and Mexico (73 million). The report analyzed that the number of active Korean app developers rose from No. 3 in the world in 2024 to No. 1 last year.
The Google Play and Android ecosystem was tallied to have generated a total of $69 billion (about 98 trillion won) in revenue for Korean app publishers and the overall economy during 2025.
The status of AI tool usage by domestic Android app developers was found. The report estimated that the introduction of AI tools could raise developers' work efficiency by an annual average of 33%. This corresponds to a productivity improvement of about $14,000 (about 20 million won) per developer per year.
Korean Google Play app developers using Google AI tools are saving 9.2 hours per week, and 91% said that leveraging AI tools helped directly or indirectly with revenue generation.
Meanwhile, Google Play, together with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development (KISED), supported 660 startups from 2019 to 2025 through the "Changgu" program, which supports the growth and overseas expansion of domestic mobile app and game startups, and 100 companies for the 8th cohort have been selected this year and are in the program.
The combined sales during the program participation period of the Changgu 7th-cohort startups totaled 51.69 billion won, up about 70% from the previous year. During the same period, exports also increased about 90%, from 2.83 billion won to 5.4 billion won.
Jang Ji-woong, CEO of Treeda from the Changgu 3rd cohort, said, "In the early days of our startup, we were struggling to find exactly what service would fit the United States, our target market, but through the Google Play Changgu program, we gained a deep understanding of users, improved app retention, and received great help on how to target the U.S. market," adding, "We are grateful to Google Korea and the Changgu program, which laid the groundwork for the global leap of domestic startups, and to Google Play for creating a venue for mutual growth."