There’s a new AI champion of the highly competitive digital market of South Korea. In a shock holiday chart upset, Grok, the AI assistant app created by Elon Musk’s xAI has shot to the number one spot on the South Korean iOS App Store’s free charts.
The win in one of the most tech-literate countries shows a major move away from user preference. Where rivals have succeeded with professional and polished utility, the rise of Grok suggests an appetite for real-time information and a little bit more uncouth human personality when it comes to how we interact with AI.
Although Grok is where it’s at (at the moment), further down the list there are huge battles taking place, with some global titans battling regional incumbents. Here’s a list of AI apps that people are currently using on South Korean iPhones.
1. The New Disruptor: Grok (xAI)
The Draw: Real-time access and unfiltered personality.
Grok ascends: Releases iOS app. Writing on the Grok weblog, Blau notes, “We surprised lots of people with it, but we feel it worked out great. I’ll keep it short and just divulge that Grok has a new best friend in iOS.”
South Korean users seem to be attracted by its one-of-a-kind value proposition: seamless incorporation of real-time X (formerly Twitter) data streams into the service and its “fun mode,” with a sardonic, more rebellious manner than jazzy, sanitized rivals.
Its instant response to breaking news and cultural trends has made it the app of the season.
Also Read: GLM-4.7 Is on Top and the AI Rankings Are Starting to Look Very Different
2. The Resilient Standard: ChatGPT (OpenAI)
The Draw: Unmatched versatility and multimodal power.
At number two, bumped down this month, is what remains a powerhouse: ChatGPT. The app is the single “everything app” for AI.
It’s a favorite tool of students and professionals in Seoul, S.R.O., used for everything from help with complex coding to creative writing.
And its powerful voice mode and image search feature make it impossible not to have, even while we’re checking out the competition. It’s not losing its usefulness; the market is just growing.
3. The Local Powerhouse: Naver Clova Note (Naver Cloud)
The Draw: Specialized Korean language mastery and productivity.
Remaining at No. 3, it’s one of our own hometown heroes. Clova Note owes its existence to the scale of Naver’s HyperCLOVA X model and the needs of South Korean workers.
It’s not a run-of-the-mill chatbot; it’s a sleek productivity tool for recording meetings, creating hyper-accurate Korean transcripts, and even summarizing action items.
Its deep knowledge of the subtleties of local business provides it a moat that global players find hard to cross.
4. The Deep Thinker: Claude (Anthropic)
The Draw: Massive context window and nuanced writing.
Claude has a cult following among researchers, writers, and heavy data-accomplishing users who have a need for serious information processing. Its huge context window makes it possible for users to load an entire document or book for analysis.
In academic and high-stress corporate environments in South Korea, Claude is used to handle tasks requiring sustained reasoning and to produce long-form, human-like prose without that pesky “AI flavor” present in many other models.
5. The Ecosystem Play: Google Gemini
The Draw: Seamless integration with Google services.
Google Gemini brings up the rear in the top five. Though it’s a harder sell on iOS than on Android, its strength as an all-purpose note-taking app means it’s worth consideration for users on either platform who are already enmeshed in the broader Google ecosystem.
For those who are heavily invested in Gmail, Docs, and Drive, it’s incredibly handy to have Gemini pull that data from their own workspace. Its multimodal features and recent speed boosts still make it very competitive for everyday usage.
