Six out of ten domestic small and medium-sized enterprises are counted as startups.
On the 16th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Startup Promotion Agency revealed the results of the 2022 'Startup Enterprise Survey,' which investigates the characteristics of startup enterprises (those within seven years of starting operations).
This survey compiles general status regarding the number of startups, sales, and the number of employees by analyzing the entire '2022 Business Statistics Registration' from the Statistics Korea released in April 2024. A sample of 8,031 startup enterprises was examined.
As of 2022, the number of startups increased by 6.2% compared to the previous year, reaching 4,829,000, accounting for 60.1% of all small and medium-sized enterprises. Among startups, technology-based startups numbered 965,000, representing 20.0%.
During this period, the number of employees in startups was 8,515,000, marking a 16.3% increase. This accounts for 44.9% of the total number of employees in small and medium-sized enterprises. The number of employees in technology-based startups was recorded at 2,578,000.
The revenue of startups was 1,186.1 trillion won, representing 35.8% of the total revenue of small and medium-sized enterprises. The revenue of technology-based startups was 331.4 trillion won, while non-technology-based startups generated 854.6 trillion won.
While the number of technology-based startups accounted for 20.0% of all startups, their shares of employees and revenue were 30.3% and 27.9%, respectively, indicating superior management performance compared to non-technology-based startups, according to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.