It's well known that large, family-owned conglomerates dominate the Korean economy,... but recent data suggests their influence is increasing even more.<br />Our Choi Si-young tells us more. <br /> Korea's economic dependence on chaebols, the country's family-owned conglomerates, is increasing... as data shows the combined sales of Korea's top 10 companies made up more than 44-percent of the country's gross domestic product last year.<br />Data released by industry tracker CEO Score on Wednesday shows the accumulated sales of chaebols amounted to 677-point-8-billion U.S. dollars in 2017.<br /> The lion's share came from Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics, which alone accounted for nearly 15-percent of GDP with sales of 224-point-2-billion dollars... followed by automaker Hyundai Motor and Samsung's local rival LG Electronics.<br /> The dominance of chaebols has increased over the years.<br />Sales by the top 10 companies made up a greater proportion of Korea's GDP in 2017 than in 2015, when the top-ten firms' combined sales made up around 41-and-a-half percent of GDP.<br />This trend is in a sharp contrast to the U.S. and Japan. <br />The top 10 companies in the U.S. account for about twelve percent of its national GDP; in Japan, the top ten firms make up about twenty-five percent.<br /> Walmart and Toyota, the number one firms in the U.S. and Japan, only account for roughly three percent and six percent of their respective national GDPs. <br />Choi Si-young, Arirang News. <br />
