What Is the Tower of Export?
Every year, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and the Korea International Trade Association (KITA) present the Tower of Export, a national award recognizing companies that have meaningfully contributed to Korea’s export growth and global market expansion. It is the Korean government’s official certification of a company’s global competitiveness, a recognition backed by verified export figures.
The award’s criteria are rigorous. Export achievements are evaluated across 49 tiers, ranging from USD 1 million to USD 1.2 billion. This detailed scale ensures that the award reflects a company’s precise annual performance in the global market.
What Does It Take to Receive the Tower of Export?
The award is determined strictly by how much a company has earned from overseas customers in the past year. It acknowledges:
- Actual foreign currency revenue generated through global sales of products or services
- Evidence certified by banks, customs authorities, and other official financial institutions
- Contributions through indirect exports or overseas investment that result in export growth
Any company, regardless of size or industry, may apply. Manufacturing, IT, services, and even startups are all eligible.
However, the requirement is clear and uncompromising:
Only verified global revenue, money paid by real overseas customers, qualifies. This is why the award holds significant weight and remains one of Korea’s most respected government recognitions.
Who Typically Receives the Award?
Historically, the Tower of Export has been dominated by Korea’s leading manufacturing sectors, which have been the backbone of the nation’s economic growth for decades. Typical awardees include companies in Automotive, Semicondustors, Textiles, and Chemicals, etc.
Given this tradition, the award has long been perceived as a symbol of industrial manufacturing strength. As a result, it has been uncommon for IT, data, or AI companies to earn the award, especially on a recurring basis.
Why Is It Particularly Challenging for AI Companies to Receive This Award?
AI companies face structural barriers when it comes to earning recognized export revenue.
1) A Domestic-Focused Business Environment
Most Korean AI companies rely on:
- Domestic public-sector projects
- AI solutions deployed to local enterprises
- Korean-language datasets and services
This inherently limits global revenue, making it difficult to meet export criteria.
2) High Barriers to Entry in Data and AI Exports
Selling AI or data services overseas requires meeting extremely demanding global standards:
- Data privacy and security compliance
- International certifications such as ISO27001
- High-quality multilingual data
- Regulatory alignment across countries
- Proven model performance for diverse languages and use cases
Without all of these, consistent export revenue simply cannot happen.
3) Sustained Quality Required for Repeat Global Purchases
A one-time sale is not enough. To be recognized year after year:
An AI company must earn repeat trust from overseas clients through continuous, reliable performance.
This is why 4 consecutive years of export achievement in the AI sector is exceptionally rare.
Flitto Becoming the Only Korean AI Company to Win for Four Consecutive Years
① The Only Korean AI Company With Sustained Global Revenue Growth
Four consecutive years means Flitto’s technology and datasets have consistently met global standards, and global demand, year after year.
② Proof That Flitto’s Language Data and AI Translation Are Worth Buying on the Global Stage
Flitto’s datasets and AI solutions are used by government agencies, enterprises, research institutions, and global platforms across the U.S., Europe, Southeast Asia, and beyond.
③ A Symbolic Shift in Korea’s Export Landscape
For decades, export achievements were centered on manufacturing. Flitto’s recognition signifies that Korea’s knowledge-based and AI-driven exports have entered the global arena.
It is a meaningful moment not just for the company, but for the industry.
How Flitto Achieved This: The Source of Its Global Competitiveness
Flitto’s continued export growth is the product of consistent effort, long-term vision, and technological depth that has been built step by step, often slowly, but always with intention.
The core drivers behind Flitto’s competitiveness include:
① A Global Crowdsourcing-Based Language Data Infrastructure
Millions of multilingual contributors worldwide enable Flitto to gather and refine high-quality datasets across dozens of languages, an asset incredibly difficult for new players to replicate.
② AI Translation and Language Models Trained on Authentic, Large-Scale Data
Flitto is not simply a translation platform. It is an AI data company whose models are trained on extensive real-world linguistic datasets collected over many years.
③ Long-Term Trust with Global Enterprises and Institutions
Repeated export success means that global clients continuously choose Flitto, because they trust its accuracy, reliability, and consistency.
④ Robust Security and International Compliance
ISO27001-level security, strong data governance practices, and a deep respect for data ethics have made Flitto a dependable partner for enterprises and governments alike.
Flitto’s export achievements reflect a broader national impact:
- Demonstrating Korea’s strength in AI and language technology
- Expanding the country’s portfolio of high-value, knowledge-based exports
- Contributing foreign currency earnings to the national economy
- Promoting the global adoption of Korean-developed AI systems
- Supporting job creation in AI, language data, engineering, and research
More importantly:
Flitto has shown that AI companies, traditionally seen as domestic and R&D-heavy, can become meaningful contributors to Korea’s export economy.
This four-year milestone is not the end, but a signal of what is possible. Flitto’s journey illustrates how a company built with persistence and integrity can represent Korea on the global stage, proving that innovation, data, and technology can become powerful export assets.
Flitto will continue moving upward, step by step, but always forward.