The Republic of Korea leads the contact-free economy and market

The Republic of Korea, a 5G powerhouse, leads the contact-free economy and market.

The average annual growth of 13.5 percent in the contact-free market in the Republic of Korea (RoK) is expected to be 292 trillion won in 2023.

Non-face-to-face service that opens a new daily life for the people.

It has already been nearly two years since COVID-19 shook the world. Daily life, which was taken for granted, was restricted, and new daily life such as 'contact-free' and 'social distancing' emerged. Contact-free services with digital technology applied to existing face-to-face-based services are becoming the New Normal. The rapid contact-free transition caused by COVID-19 has become a major issue around the world. And it is the RoK that is attracting attention as a country that will lead this trend change.

To implement leading contact-free technologies and services, 5G networks characterised by ultra-high-speed, ultra-connectivity, and ultra-low latency and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) characterised by 5G core technologies and optimisation and intelligence are needed. The RoK is the world's first powerhouse to commercialise 5G and is currently developing technologies to preoccupy global leadership in the 6G field beyond 5G. With this background, The RoK is a country with great potential for revitalising the contact-free economy and leading the market.

Deloitte, one of the world's top four accounting firms, classified the contact-free economy as "consumption within the house" for contact-free lifestyle services, including e-commerce consumption behaviour, product delivery, or telemedicine and the scale of "consumption within the house" in the Asia-Pacific region, which was worth 1.2 trillion USD in 2019, is expected to grow to 3 trillion USD by 2025.

The RoK's contact-free market was worth 199.6791 trillion won last year, and is expected to grow 13.5 percent annually by 2023, reaching 291.9302 trillion won. To proactively respond to the contact-free transformation, the Korean government is focusing on discovering contact-free services close to daily life such as healthcare, education, business, living consumption, entertainment, logistics and distribution, information and security, and transportation, and enhancing global competitiveness. The institutions that take the lead in this role are the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National IT Industry Promotion Agency.

Among them, the National IT Industry Promotion Agency (hereinafter referred to as NIPA) is discovering and fostering contact-free services with digital technology applied to face-to-face services through the "Contact-free Service Activation Project for Daily Life" project and supporting them to entering the global market. This year, NIPA supported demonstrations, pilot applications, testing, and commercialisation of seven technologies and services, including Contact-free Evaluation, Safe Touch, which is responsive to infectious diseases, Smart Mental Care, Infectious Disease Response Robots, Advanced Lifestyle Platform Services, Leisure and Home Fitness Platforms, and Last Mile Robot Delivery.

Furthermore, five innovative contact-free technologies and service ideas owned by startups were discovered, advanced, and commercialised through cooperation with demanding organizations. Innovative contact-free services discovered in this way include "Realistic Content Experience Platform," "Customised VR Rehabilitation Programme," "Traffic Accident PTSD VR Digital Treatment Device," "Integrated Foreign Currency Management System combined with AI Voice Recognition Robots," and "Artificial Intelligence Art Education Platform."

These 12 contact-free services were introduced at "InnoFesta 2021" held by NIPA at KINTEX Exhibition Hall in Ilsan on November 25, drawing great response from visitors. The following is an introduction to contact-free services in 12 lifestyle fields that will lead the global contact-free service market.

The "Intelligent Contact-Free Evaluation System" developed by Wissensbaum Co., Ltd. is a technology to compensate for problems that may occur during contact-free evaluation, such as proxy tests and cheating, and patents were filed as "Methods, devices and or programs to prevent cheating in contact-free evaluations.

MARKETON Co., Ltd’s "Safe Touch Display for Contact-Free Devices" was developed as a non-contact safe touch technology that applies elevator buttons with state-of-the-art hologram technology to suppress virus infection as much as possible in elevators close to daily life and can be utilized in airports, large hospitals, office buildings, and financial ATMs.

The demonstration project conducted by NCOM Co., Ltd. as a contact-free service using 'Biological Signal-based Contact-Free VR Content' is a community-Hospital Integrated Management Smart Mental Care Service developed as a monitoring system to effectively evaluate changes in depression, anxiety, stress, and quality of life, which are major indicators of mental health in the community.

Also, SEA INFOTEC Co., Ltd.’s "Building an Isolation Facility Goods Transfer Service Using Artificial Intelligence-Based Self-Driving Robots" Project was conducted so that goods can be safely delivered and received by employing a designated fingerprint authentication method and was positively evaluated for its strengthened security and safety.

Developed by Rayzone Co., Ltd. the "Virtual Convergence Model House Advancement and CAVE System" not only supports contact-free lifestyle counseling by implementing the functions of offline model houses as an online platform but can also implement O2O (Online to Offline) proptech services.

In addition, the 'Kids Home Training Platform Using Global Popular Character IP', which SAMG Entertainment Co., Ltd. conducted, was developed as a client program (application) for contact-free 1:1 two-way content sharing using augmented reality (AR) technology that combines next-generation deep learning.

Kosturn Co., Ltd. introduced the "Serving Robot-based Smart Restaurant Service" which is a system that serves food quickly and accurately by linking an automatic delivery system that delivers cooked food by connecting additional electronic tablets for ordering to the existing POS.


In addition, The 4th Wave Co., Ltd. developed and commercialised the "Drive-Thru Content Experience Platform.", a theater system that lets users experience realistic content in conjunction with simulator motion in the contact-free era.

PNPMedia Co., Ltd. developed a "VR Customized Rehabilitation Program for Patients with Cerebral Palsy" that applied task-oriented training to double the treatment effect of pediatric cerebral palsy patients.

Mega Works Co., Ltd. is a virtual reality content-based treatment programme that has developed a "VR Provision System for Treating PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) caused by Traffic Accidents," a self-care lifestyle service using VR digital treatment devices.

Finally, OODDY Co., Ltd. developed an "Integrated Foreign Currency Management System combined with Autonomous AI Voice Recognition Robots" that provides one-stop foreign currency/travel management services as a system for providing contact-free financial service benefits for domestic and overseas travelers.

Emotionwave Co., Ltd. introduced "Music Plus, Ultra-Connected 5G Life-Close Artificial Intelligence Arts Education Platform" that allows users to easily and conveniently experience realistic singing, performance, ensemble, music education and evaluation in their daily lives./.