Preferences and Directions for Improving the Government’s Management in Mobile Applications in Korea

This paper examines the South Korean government’s current state in operating mobile applications released by the central/local government, through conducting a preference survey of each mobile app. Analyzing the preference by categories, this document is intended to provide a direction for improving the current government’s operation/management in mobile apps. Based on the number of application downloads, this study used the ‘t-test’, which reflected a high level of preferences for apps made by both the Korean government and the local governments, and the type of the application preferences were analyzed using ANOVA. The findings indicate that there is a higher interest for apps made by the central government organizations rather than local governments’. Both ‘Commerce applications’ for credit transfers or booking performances and ‘Local based applications’ for providing surrounding places near a person’s location receive much higher preferences compared to information based services. There are still limitations with regards to acquiring related information and statistics such as the kind of apps and their downloaded numbers. It can be assumed that in the near future the government will develop applications more systematically, providing potential opportunities for further related studies.