Korea's IT Service Industry Lags Behind World Leaders

Korea is becoming well known around the world for its IT manufacturing industry. However, as reported in the Chosun Ilbo today, its IT Service industry lags behind world leaders. A study of 37 major IT firms including Samsung SDS, LG CNS and SK C&C was released by the Federation of Korean Industries on Monday. It estimates the competitiveness of Korea's IT Service industry at 73.3% of that in nations that lead the industry.

Some of the reasons given in the report were a fixation with low prices, a focus on the domestic market, the lack of a high quality workforce and insufficient investment. Interestingly, lack of foreign language skills and poor working conditions were also cited.

The world IT service market was worth $754 billion in 2008, far more than the markets for semiconductors ($255 billion)and mobile phones ($122 billion). Korean companies account for only two percent of the IT service market.