Four U.S. tech giants raise $6.7 billion revenue in Korea over past year

[Graphics by Song Ji-yoon]

The United States’ top four tech giants – Google LLC, Meta Platforms Inc., Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. – have generated more than 9 trillion won ($6.5 billion) in revenue in South Korea over the past year.

According to the audit reports of the Korean subsidiaries of the companies on Sunday, the combined total revenue amounted to 9.32 trillion won over the past year and operating profit stood at 662.1 billion won.

Apple Korea posted the highest revenue with 7.52 trillion won from October 2022 to September 2023. Its operating profit stood at 559.9 billion won during the same period.

Microsoft Korea posted an operating profit of 63.9 billion won between July 2022 and June 2023 on sales of 1.37 trillion won, while Facebook Korea recorded a revenue of 65.1 billion won.

Industry insiders, however, note that their performances could have been understated considering the dominance of big tech companies in the domestic market.

Certain portion of the revenue generated in Korea by companies such as Google is calculated simply as overseas revenue and/or transferred to the U.S. headquarters.

Google Korea, in fact, came under scrutiny for spending only 155 billion won in corporate tax, which is just 3 percent of that of domestic tech giant Naver Corp.