South Korea's market for the Internet of Things products and services surged 28 percent on-year in 2015, data showed Tuesday, indicating more local firms are jumping on the IoT bandwagon.

The country's IoT market was estimated at 4.8 trillion won for 2015, compared with 3.75 trillion won posted a year earlier, the data compiled by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning showed.

The IoT is a concept in which all tangible objects are connected to the Internet and can identify themselves to other devices in order to exchange necessary data for improved efficiency and convenience.

The area has been one of the key areas of focus by the government, as well as technology firms over the past years, which sought new growth engines.

The latest findings track four major pillars of the IoT industry, namely services, electronics goods, networks and platform businesses.

Of the market, IoT products accounted for 45.8 percent, or 2.2 trillion won, followed by network operators with 30.9 percent, or

1.4 trillion won.

There were 1,212 IoT companies as of end-October, with 45.5 percent of them being service providers and 26.3 percent being product manufacturers.

South Korea's ICT ministry said it will continue efforts to foster IoT startups and help them roll out full-fledged services throughout 2016 to have the segment settle in the country's industry realm. (Yonhap)