The Korean economy has become somewhat less dominated by big businesses as the proportion their sales take up of the country's top 1,000 companies' total sales is dwindling, according to the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The KCCI on Monday announced the results of its analysis of the business performance of the country's top 1,000 companies.

Last year, the top 10 companies posted sales of W403 trillion to take up 21.3 percent of the total, while the top 50 and 100 companies accounted for 50.9 percent and 64 percent at W963 trillion and W1,212 trillion. The ratios were down 1.6, 2.4 and 1.6 percentage points from the previous year.

This follows a decrease in 2009, when their proportional shares of total sales fell 3.2 (top 10), 3 (top 50) and 2.4 percentage points (top 100) from 2008.

Aggregate sales for the 1,000 companies hit W1,893 trillion in 2010, up W161 trillion or 9.4 percent from 2009, thus giving them an overall net profit of W117.7 trillion.

Samsung Electronics topped the list with W112.2 trillion, followed by SK Innovation (W43.8 trillion) and Korea Electric Power Corporation (W39.1 trillion). Hyundai Motor was next with sales of W36.7 trillion, and GS Caltex ranked fifth with W33 trillion.

The firms employed 1.616 million staff in 2010, up 58,000 from 2009, giving each an extra headcount of 58 on average.

Of those on the list, Hanjin Shipping recorded the biggest leap in rank from 363rd to 43rd due to favorable exports of both containers and bulk shipments. Samsung Electronics enjoyed the biggest sales increase of W22.4 trillion.