ChatGPT, Gemini lead paid subscriptions; Anthropic's Claude tops revenue growth; Korea ranks No. 2 globally by sales despite lacking domestic rivals
South Korea is fast becoming one of the most lucrative markets for global generative AI companies — yet homegrown AI services are virtually nonexistent, leaving the field entirely to foreign players.
OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini have driven growth in the domestic paid subscription market, and Anthropic's Claude has since rapidly expanded its own revenue base in the country.
South Korea's share of global AI app revenue has already reached second place worldwide. Analysts say that while Korean consumers are willing to pay for AI services, the absence of any competitive domestic offering means the market remains dominated by foreign products.
According to Sensor Tower, a global market intelligence firm, all top-ranked apps in South Korea's iOS generative AI market from Jan. 1 through June 5 this year were foreign services.
Among them, Anthropic's Claude posted the strongest revenue growth in South Korea, ranking first in growth rate and second in overall revenue behind ChatGPT during the same period.
Sensor Tower said Claude's revenue surge likely reflects existing users upgrading to paid plans or switching to higher-tier subscriptions rather than new downloads. "It signals that more users are moving beyond simply trying out generative AI and are now paying for it to boost productivity in their actual work," the firm said.
The trend is also visible in country-level revenue breakdowns. South Korea accounted for 4.7 percent of Claude's total revenue during the period, the second highest after the United States at 41.1 percent. Given South Korea's population size, the figure underscores how actively Korean users are paying for generative AI services.
South Korea has established itself as a core revenue market across major AI platforms. In ChatGPT's country-by-country revenue rankings, South Korea placed among the top three, behind the United States and Japan. In Gemini's revenue breakdown, South Korea at 14.5 percent ranked second only to Japan at 15.0 percent, making it a top-tier paying market for every major generative AI service.
Industry observers say South Korea has become more than just a user-acquisition market for generative AI companies — it is now a proving ground for paid subscription models. Although its population is smaller than that of the United States or Japan, South Korea's high conversion rate to paid tiers and strong workplace adoption make it an ideal testing ground for premium AI subscription services.
South Korea is widely regarded as a country with little resistance to paying for AI, yet there are no domestic AI services to speak of. Korean consumers are opening their wallets for AI subscriptions, but there is no "made in Korea" product for them to subscribe to.
That dynamic is accelerating competition within the domestic generative AI market on foreign terms. ChatGPT and Gemini have long led the space, but Claude is rapidly closing the gap, setting up a three-way race. Claude overtook Gemini for the first time in late March and has continued to widen the lead, with its growth pace steepening further in early May.
rim@heraldcorp.com
