The purpose of this study is to analyze the current state of the digital economy in the capital area and to suggest the development direction of the Seoul software industry. We analyzed the number of businesses, employment, value-added, transfer, industrial structure, and economic ripple effects using micro data of various statistical data such as economic survey, national business survey and regional employment survey and the features are described.
The digital economy is concentrated in the capital area, with software in Seoul and hardware in Gyeonggi. Software concentrated in Seoul is growing and spreading to neighboring Gyeonggi provinces. Recently, startups are actively doing their businesses, while Gyeonggi is forming new clusters with the inflow of mid-sized companies moved from Seoul.
Seoul’s software is becoming more diverse, with the proportion of games and IT services increasing as the portion of packages decreases. According to the location quotient analysis, thirteen software clusters have been found in Seoul, with ten regions including Guro, Gangnam and DMC functioning as clusters.
Based on the findings, the following policy is proposed. It is desirable for Seoul to contribute to the spread of the digital economy by utilizing the characteristics of startups. In addition, efforts should be made to foster high-quality human resources to respond to employment demands and to strengthen industrial competitiveness. It is desirable to share the role of Gyeonggi-do with different characteristics from Seoul, and to cooperate with each other. In addition, it is necessary to develop a customized strategy according to the characteristics of the clusters.