South Korea has turned into a powerhouse for Google’s AI business. The country is now the second-biggest market in the world for paid Gemini subscriptions, trailing only the United States. According to new data from Sensor Tower, Korea generated over $21 million in revenue through Apple’s App Store, which accounts for more than 11% of what Gemini makes globally.
What makes this even more interesting is that Korea doesn’t have a massive number of downloads. In fact, it only ranks 17th in terms of how many people have installed the app. However, Koreans are spending more money per download than users in any other major market. This proves that people in Korea aren’t just trying out the app for fun; they find it useful enough to pull out their wallets and pay for the premium version.
Most of this growth happened after Google released Gemini 3 in November. This latest version made the AI much more capable. It improved at solving problems, performing research, and writing without needing the user to type in long, complicated instructions. Since that launch, the number of people using the app every day in Korea has skyrocketed by over 100%. That is the fastest growth rate seen in any major market.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT still holds the top spot in Korea, but Gemini is quickly closing the gap. Early last year, ChatGPT had seven times more daily users than Gemini. Now, that lead has shrunk significantly, and ChatGPT is only about four times as popular.
Koreans also seem to be using both tools at once. Before the latest update, only about 23% of ChatGPT fans also used Gemini. Today, nearly 41% of them have both apps on their phones. It looks like South Korea is becoming the ultimate testing ground for high-end AI, with users who are more than willing to pay for the best technology available.
