SEOUL (Yonhap) — South Korean tech behemoth Samsung Electronics Co. accounted for nearly half of the revenue logged in the tech sector last year, underscoring its unrivaled dominance in the segment, data showed Tuesday.

The combined sales of 1,287 South Korean tech companies reached 328.1 trillion won (US$278.5 billion) last year, according to the data by the Korea CXO Institute, a Seoul-based market tracker.

The data are based on the tech firms with over 10 billion won in assets that are subject to an outside audit in accordance with financial regulations here, the research firm added.

Of the figure, Samsung Electronics’ sales came to 137 trillion won, representing 42 percent of the entire sales.

Its local rival LG Electronics Inc. trailed behind with 29 trillion won in sales, accounting for 9 percent, followed by LG Display Co. with 25.3 trillion in sales and Samsung Display Co. with 24.9 trillion won, both taking up about 7.7 percent each, the data showed.

Such an overwhelming portion of big tech firms indicates that the technology sector has served as a main growth driver for the South Korean economy, the Asia’s fourth-largest, in the past few decades, the researcher said.

Nonetheless, it raises fresh concerns about what the next future source of profits will be for local companies, since the tech sector seems to be entering a phase of decline, it said.

“Given that our research found the development cycle for a specific industry lasts for about 15 years, the local tech sector has been showing a downhill pattern since the early 2000s,” the institute said.