More South Koreans are using artificial intelligence-based translation services over the last year as international travel recovers following the easing of social distancing measures during the pandemic.

According to IGAWorks’ big data solution Mobile Index on Friday, South Korea’s platform giant Naver Corp.’s AI-based translation app Papago had a total of 5.31 million monthly active users on Google Play Store and Apple App Store last month. The figure rose 26.7 percent from 4.19 million in 2022 and 40.2 percent from 3.79 million in 2021.

Papago users remained below 4.5 million in February last year and started to rise since a month later. The number has been on the rise after surpassing 5 million in November, when travel demand began to recover as Japan resumed no-visa entry for individual arrivals for the first time in two years and seven months.

Papago provides AI-assisted translations in 13 languages, including English, Chinese and Japanese.

According to an analysis by Naver, the app’s usage overseas climbed 35 percent from a year ago last month, mainly driven by the recovery in demand for international travel.

“More users take advantage of features, such as Image Translation and AR & Camera Translation, that they find useful in specific situations, like buying an item or placing an order when abroad,” an unnamed official from Naver said. “We plan to add more advanced features to meet various needs of users.”

Users of Google Translate app, the second most popular translation service in Korea, rose slightly over the last year. The app had 2.26 million monthly active users in February, up 11 percent from a year ago and rose for a third month.

Flitto, a South Korean crowdsourcing translation platform, reported 27,319 monthly active users as of last month, a 49.3 percent jump from a year ago.

Market insiders said that the growth in translation app users came from the recovery in international tourism, along with diverse tourist attractions and patterns.

According to the Korea Tourism Organization, the number of Koreans that traveled overseas in January soared 1,109 percent on year to 1.78 million. The number in 2022 was 6.55 million, up 436.1% from 2021.

“As more people travel to countries that use foreign languages other than English, translation apps have also been in high demand,” said Lee Eun-hee, a professor at Inha University.

By Pulse

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