Mr. Kim, an office worker in his 40s, searched for tourist attractions on the “Every Corner of Korea” of the Korea Tourism Organization to visit with his family on the weekend. As a father of two children, Mr. Kim used the “KorailTalk” app to book KTX tickets to Gyeongju for his four-member family.
After arriving in Gyeongju, Mr. Kim rented a car for him and his family using his “Mobile Driver’s License” to verify his driver status, and used “Opinet” to find the cheapest gas station nearby. As he left the gas station, he found a traffic sign on the road in front of the gas station that was about to fall. Instead of ignoring the potential hazard, he reported it via “Safety e-Report”. Later, he took his family to the Donggung Palace and the Wolji Pond (formerly known as Anapji Pond). He entered and admired the beautiful pond from the Silla period without paying admission by proving his “person of national merit” status using a “digital certificate” that he had issued online at “Government24”. 
Upon returning from the trip, Mr. Kim found out that he can apply for COVID-19 relief, which he had been postponing for quite a while, without visiting the community service center. He was able to apply for relief online using “Subsidy24”. Mr. Kim also received an notification for the upcoming automobile inspection period from “GoodPy, the Virtual Assistant Service for Citizens”. Thanks to the notification, he was able to book an inspection in time, which he had almost forgotten, before the end date. “Phew, I got so close to paying a fine for that.” And he thought what a convenient world he is living in, informing him about the right benefits that he needs just in time.

 

In 2022, more than nine out of ten Koreans (92.2%) used digital government services, and most of them were accessed using mobile apps on smartphones.

The digital government services most widely used by the public were, in the order of usage, the Government24 website and app (website 89.3%, app 87.0%), HomeTax (83.2%), which topped the list in 2021, National Health Insurance (74.7%), and KorailTalk/SRT (65.5%). Three out of four users were found to use GoodPy, the Virtual Assistant Service for Citizens, for new digital government services. The finding shows that GoodPy carved out its presence in people’s lives in just a year after its launch.

 

 

The public awareness, usage rate, and satisfaction rate for Korea’s digital government services in 2022 were 97.3%, 92.2%, and 97.7%, respectively. The reasons most frequently cited for satisfaction with the services included promptness (speedy process), accessibility (accessible anywhere and anytime), and batch processing (processes multiple related tasks at once).
 

 

 

Just as in the previous year, the public awareness and usage rate of those in their 60s or older, who are digitally vulnerable, rose 6.8%p and 12.2%p respectively year-on-year because of the COVID-19 vaccination online booking and the alert services for subsidies and health checkups through GoodPy. Both the users and non-users of digital government services mentioned that the most effective way to increase the usage of digital government services was the simplification of identity verification/ authentication, indicating that inconvenience due to the complicated authentication process still remains.

 

 

The findings on the use of key digital government services indicated Korean society’s “return to normal” three years after the COVID-19 outbreak. First, the usage rates of travel/tourism services, such as “KorailTalk” and “Every Corner of Korea,” significantly increased by 19.3%p and 13.2%p, respectively, year-on-year. The usage rate of Opinet also soared by 25.0%p, which seems to have been affected by the oil price volatility and increase in car travel.