[Korea.net News, Economy / Industry, January 17 2008] Korea's Internet call market to grow sharply on household adoption: report

The Korean market for internet-based telephony is expected to grow over 50 percent annually over the next five years as an increasing number of households and businesses replace their traditional service with the new and cheaper way of making calls, a report showed Thursday (Jan. 17).

According to the report by industry consulting firm, IDC Korea, the local market for Internet calls, or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), will likely expand by an annual average of 53 percent between 2007 and 2011 to 1.42 trillion won ($1.5 billion).

The report put the local VoIP market last year at an estimated 255.2 billion won, up 52.2 percent from a year earlier.

"Until now, the VoIP market here has grown as businesses moved fast to adopt the new telephony service. As more households are expected to follow suit, its size will likely grow at a faster pace down the road," an IDC Korea official said.