Number of SW registrations hit all-time high last year

The number of software (SW) registrations and exports of SW products both recorded all-time highs last year.

The Korea Institute of Multimedia Contents and Software (KOMS) said Monday that a total of 9,662 SW products were newly registered last year in Korea, up 41.8 percent from the previous year. By category, the registration of SW related to science and technology topped the list with 1,842 cases or 19.1 percent of the total, followed by office-operation SW with 1,643 cases or 17.0 percent.

Data-communication SW came next with 1,037 cases or 13.5 percent. Institute officials said that the number of SW registrations peaked in 1997 with 7,350 cases and declined to 7,259 in 1998 and 6,815 in 1999.

Meanwhile, the value of SW product exports also hit an all-time high of $182.52 million last year, rising 60.9 percent from a year earlier. According to the Ministry of Information and Communication, the computing service sector posted $81.99 million worth of exports, accounting for 44.9 percent of the total.

Exports of multimedia contents reached $22.85 million, a whopping 580 percent increase from 1999.

Moon Kwon-Mo africa7@donga.com