South Korea's market for mobile advertisements is expected to surpass the 1 trillion won ($849 million) mark this year on the back of the country's high smartphone penetration, data showed Friday.
  

The market size is estimated to reach 1.05 trillion won this year, which will mark a 27.2 percent on-year rise, the Korea Internet & Security Agency said.
  

South Korea's mobile advert market soared 100.3 percent on-year in 2014 to 832.9 billion won.
  

Industry watchers said the robust growth is fueled by the strong presence of smartphones in the country, home to world-class tech giants, such as Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc.
  

South Korea with a population of 50 million boasts the fourth-highest smartphone penetration rate in the world with the figure standing at 83 percent as of end-March.
  

The country's combined advertisement market reached 9 trillion won in 2014, the data also showed.
  

Naver Corp., Kakao Corp. and SK Communications Co., South Korea's top three online portal operators, saw advertisements take up 71.4 percent of the combined revenue of 3.75 trillion won.
  

SK Communications posted the highest figure of 84.2 percent, trailed by Naver with 73.1 percent and Daum with 64.9 percent.
  

The rising number of smartphone users, meanwhile, also led to an increase in the trading volume of online commerce firms.
  

The combined size of the goods traded online in the country came to 45.2 trillion won in 2014, up 17.5 percent on-year. The mobile segment was attributable for 14.8 trillion won, up 125.8 percent on-year. (Yonhap)