Business Applications Surge by Up to 1.7 Times After Sending 'Small Business Policy Alert Message'

Results Confirmed for the Ministry’s “Small Business Policy Alert Message” Service

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups has seen a rise in applications for government support programs after strengthening customized policy guidance for small business owners who find it difficult to directly search for information about government assistance projects.

The ministry announced on June 7 that it sent an alert message via KakaoTalk to 213,000 female small business owners in their 20s to 40s on March 20, informing them about the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s “maternity benefit support program.” As a result, the number of applications for the program increased by more than 1.3 times immediately after the message was sent compared to before. Among these, applications from one-person businesses—who often have less time to search for information—rose by about 1.7 times.

Until now, policy information for small business owners was provided mainly through public notices, making it difficult for those busy with their livelihoods to fully check the details. In response, the ministry identified and proactively notified eligible recipients by using its database of 1.52 million small business owners—previously used solely for business management purposes—and targeting the 810,000 individuals who consented to receive notifications via KakaoTalk or SMS, implementing the “Small Business Policy Alert Message Service.” Previously, this alert service only covered support programs offered by the ministry itself, but from March to May this year, it was expanded on a trial basis to include programs of other central government ministries and local governments.

For five local government programs—including maternity support and fire insurance premium support for small business owners—where there is no separate small business owner database and thus customized promotion is difficult, the ministry selected eligible recipients based on location, residence, business type, age, and gender, sending about 67,000 customized notifications. An analysis of the five local government programs showed that, compared to before the alert messages were sent, applications for these programs increased by 4 to 20 times or more, indicating a significantly greater promotional effect than for central government programs. In addition, about 31.1% of all applicants had received the alert message, suggesting that the policy alert service made a substantial contribution to expanding participation.

Based on these results, the ministry plans to continue its policy guidance service in the second half of the year to make support program information even more accessible and convenient for small business owners. It also plans to strengthen cooperation with other ministries and local governments to continuously identify programs suitable for promotion via alert messages and expand the scope of notifications. Furthermore, the ministry intends to refine its selection criteria for alert message recipients by broadening the analytical indicators, thereby improving the accuracy and effectiveness of policy guidance.

Minister Han Seong-sook of the ministry said, “It has been confirmed that the policy alert message service is an effective promotional tool for small business support programs,” and added, “We will expand the provision of customized information that precisely reflects the characteristics of different recipients and situations, based on small business data accumulated by the ministry.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.