“Even a Free Year Didn’t Work”...Google Gemini Struggles in Korea

Despite Google offering a full year of its paid AI service for free to university students and Galaxy S25 buyers, Gemini continues to underperform in the Korean market. The service has recorded four consecutive months of falling active users, moving counter to its global growth trend.

 MAU Falls for Four Straight Months — Average Usage Time Under One Minute

According to Mobile Index data, Gemini’s monthly active users (MAU) in October stood at 68,023, down 10% from 75,811 in September.

After hovering around 3,000 users last year, Gemini expanded sharply to roughly 90,000 in the first half of this year. But since July, the service has posted four straight months of decline.

New installs have also dropped.

Gemini recorded 338,957 installs in June, but by October the number had fallen 41% to 199,131. The average time spent per user was just 0.62 minutes.

Competitors on the Rise — ChatGPT, Grok, and Claude All Grow

Rival services are showing the opposite trend.

ChatGPT’s MAU climbed from 12.8 million to 13.04 million, with average usage time reaching 109 minutes.

▲Grok AI: 205,690 → 484,288 (more than doubled)

▲Claude: 76,598 → 81,937 (7% growth, overtaking Gemini)

Claude users spent an average of 67 minutes — far higher than Gemini’s near-zero figure.

Growing Globally, But Stagnant Only in Korea

Gemini continues to grow overseas.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently announced that Gemini’s global MAU reached 650 million, up 200 million from the previous quarter. The surge is attributed in part to increased onboarding following the release of the image-generation model “Nano Banana.”

With an estimated 1 billion users, ChatGPT remains the largest AI service worldwide, but Gemini has secured the No. 2 spot. The Korean market, however, remains an exception to this global momentum.

Why Korean Users Are Turning Away

Industry analysts point to the distinct nature of the Korean digital ecosystem.

A major influx of Korean users moved to ChatGPT earlier this year following the viral boom of “Ghibli-style art.” Since then, repetitive content patterns—fortune-telling prompts, profanity challenges, meme creation—have intensified the lock-in effect around ChatGPT.

“Model performance has become increasingly similar across services,” said one industry source. “In everyday use, people don’t feel much difference. There’s no compelling reason for them to switch to a new AI.”

Even though Gemini became the default AI on the Galaxy S25, the partnership did not translate into sustained usage growth.

What Gemini Must Do to Rebound in Korea

Experts say that for Korea—one of the world’s fastest-moving digital markets—improving user experience, building Korea-specific features, and strengthening content use cases may be more important than competing on raw model performance.

They note that Gemini’s stagnation is less about technical shortcomings and more about failing to present Korean users with a clear, compelling reason to choose the service.

By Jubaek Shinㅣjbshin@kmjournal.net