The Era of 1.16 Million One-Person Businesses: Becoming a Company All by Yourself

Over the past decade, the formula for starting a business was simple: you needed a team, investors, and an office. That formula is now quietly but rapidly breaking down. People who build, operate, and create billions of won in enterprise value entirely on their own are beginning to appear in official statistics. The term "solopreneur" has moved beyond a Silicon Valley buzzword and is now used in startup communities in the alleys of Seoul as well. This phenomenon is not merely the digitalization of self-employment. It is a sign that the ways we work, receive investments, and define a company are fundamentally being reorganized. Korea's Numbers: Surpassing 1.16 Million, a 15.4% Surge According to the "2025 Survey on One-Person Creative Enterprises" released by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) in April 2026, the number of domestic one-person creative enterprises stood at 1,162,529 as…