In the first half of this year, the monthly active users of OpenAI’s conversational AI service ChatGPT surpassed 23 million in the South Korean market, rapidly reshaping the landscape of the country’s mobile app ecosystem. Analysis suggests that generative AI is no longer the exclusive domain of developers and early adopters but has become an everyday tool used by the general public.<\/p>\n
According to the “Fastest Growing Mobile Apps in H1 2026” survey released by app analytics service Wiseapp\u00b7Retail on the 15th, ChatGPT’s average monthly users reached 23.24 million. This is a staggering increase of 9.86 million compared to the same period last year, marking the steepest growth among all mobile apps surveyed. This means more than one in three smartphone users in South Korea runs ChatGPT every month.<\/p>\n
This growth is attributed to ChatGPT expanding its utility beyond simple information retrieval to encompass document writing, coding, translation, and brainstorming across work and learning. Industry observers note that just as KakaoTalk became the national messenger in the early days of smartphones, ChatGPT has now ascended to the status of a “national AI app.”<\/p>\n
Google and Gemini Also Surge\u2026 The Heyday of AI Apps<\/p>\n
Even amid ChatGPT’s dominant run, the rise of Google’s AI service Gemini was formidable. During the same period, Gemini’s average monthly users increased by 6.81 million year-over-year to 7.79 million, ranking third in growth rate. Setlog, a daily life-sharing social media app that has exploded in popularity among the MZ generation, took second place with 7.33 million users.<\/p>\n
Looking at the top apps by average monthly user growth in the first half, AI, entertainment, and commerce platforms showed strength. They were followed by Digital Onnuri (3.63 million), Naver Plus Store (3.59 million), Google (3.47 million), Block Blast (2.75 million), Kakao Pay (2.49 million), Spotify (2.22 million), Monimo (1.94 million), and TikTok (1.91 million).<\/p>\n
In terms of total users, the Google app maintained an overwhelming first place with 46.95 million users. Google Chrome followed with 43.03 million, and ChatGPT proudly claimed third place with 23.24 million. This scale significantly outpaces established national apps like Coupang Eats (12.84 million), Kakao Pay (11.05 million), and TikTok (9.49 million).<\/p>\n
A Paradigm Shift in Search\u2026 Naver Remains Strong in Daily-Life Queries<\/p>\n
The rise of generative AI is directly impacting the search market landscape. According to the “AI Search Trend Report 2026” released by market research firm OpenSurvey on the 13th, more than half of search service users within the last three months reported using ChatGPT (58.1%) and Gemini (52.2%) for search purposes. Notably, Gemini’s usage experience rate skyrocketed by 23.3 percentage points from 28.9% last December, significantly boosting its presence.<\/p>\n
Naver (38.8%) remained the most frequently used search service, but its share fell by 7.2 percentage points compared to six months prior. Following Google (16.6%) and YouTube (10.8%), Gemini (9.1%) and ChatGPT (8.7%) are rapidly emerging as search gateways after the portals.<\/p>\n
However, Naver’s stronghold remains solid in information searches closely tied to daily life. The response rate for turning to Naver first for news and issue searches was 60.5%, and for local and shopping information searches, it reached 67.1%. In contrast, only 3.5% and 8.4% of respondents, respectively, said they use generative AI first in the same situations. This suggests that AI has yet to catch up with the structured databases of portals for fact-based breaking news or location-based commerce information.<\/p>\n
Naver’s Counterattack\u2026 Defending Search Leadership with an ‘AI Tab’<\/p>\n
Naver’s response to the encroachment on the search market is also swiftly underway. Last month, Naver officially launched the “AI Tab,” a conversational search feature incorporating its proprietary generative AI technology. The AI Tab goes beyond simply generating text answers to questions; it is characterized by predicting user intent and naturally connecting them to subsequent actions like making reservations or purchasing products.<\/p>\n
An information technology (IT) industry insider commented, “Just as messengers like KakaoTalk changed daily life in the early days of smartphones, AI has now become a default app,” and predicted that “the existing portal-centric search market will now be reorganized around AI platforms.” How closely Naver can integrate its vast local information and shopping ecosystem with AI is expected to be a key variable determining future leadership in the search market.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Google app topped the survey for overall average monthly users with 46.95 million. Google Chrome (43.03 million) and ChatGPT (23.24 million) followed, showing that virtually the majority of South Korean smartphone users are active within Google’s platform ecosystem. Even in the era of generative AI, Google’s influence over operating systems and browsers remains formidable, but the “everyday tools” that users experience appear to be rapidly shifting toward AI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the first half of this year, the monthly active users of OpenAI’s conversational AI service ChatGPT surpassed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[623],"tags":[5165,608,6298,2730,1043,657,6226,46315,46316,46313],"class_list":["post-88354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-naver","tag-chatgpt","tag-coupang-eats","tag-gemini","tag-google","tag-kakao-pay","tag-naver","tag-openai","tag-opensurvey","tag-setlog","tag-wiseappretail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}