The digital economy has become one of the core drivers of global economic growth. However, it also presents a series of challenges, including data security, privacy protection, and platform governance, which require effective legal regulation and governance. To promote the healthy development of the digital economy, South Korea has introduced the “Digital Four Laws” and related mechanisms. As a latecomer, China has also gradually implemented its own “Digital Three Laws” in recent years. While these legal frameworks have addressed some of the challenges in the development of the digital economy in both countries, the rapid pace of digital economic growth means that existing legal systems are not yet fully capable of addressing all emerging challenges. Therefore, this study adopts a comparative research approach, analyzing the foundational legal systems for the digital economy in both countries. The study summarizes South Korea’s experiences and distills four key insights for improving China’s legal framework. First, China should strengthen support for data industrialization and technological innovation by drawing on South Korea’s specific measures in promoting data industrialization and technological innovation, and refine related legal provisions, particularly in terms of financial guidance, technological research and development, and industrial innovation. Second, China should improve its international cooperation mechanisms and actively participate in global governance by further clarifying cooperation provisions on global data flow and privacy protection, and enhancing the legal framework’s role in guiding international collaboration, thus increasing China’s voice in global digital economy governance. Third, China should enhance data transparency and policy openness, drawing on South Korea’s experience with establishing a Data Policy Committee to promote the openness and transparency of data governance policies. Lastly, China should strengthen user protection, especially for minors, by adopting similar protective measures to those in South Korea to ensure that the privacy and data of all users, particularly minors, are adequately safeguarded in the digital environment.

Today’s digital economy has gradually emerged as a new engine of innovation for China’s economic growth. However, while injecting new vitality into the Chinese economy, digital globalization has also brought a series of challenges to China, such as data security, digital divide, unregulated competition among digital platforms, and a lack of mechanisms for protecting property rights. These issues underscore China's insufficient capacity for effectively regulating and systematically governing the digital economy. In contrast, South Korean government has implemented the ‘Korea Digital Strategy’ (KDS) and the ‘Basic Law for Promoting the Revitalization and Utilization of Data’ (Data Industry Act) to foster the development of the digital economy industry. These measures effectively solve the problems of digital industry development and governance, and thus improve the legal system of South Korea’s digital economy. Therefore, this study compares the construction of digital economy legal system in China and South Korea through comparative analysis, summarizes the experience of digital economy legal system construction in South Korea, and offers three insights for the development of China’s digital economy legal system. Firstly, China needs to improve the coordination of its laws for the digital economy, avoid repetitive and overlapping legislation, and enhance the scientificity and authority of legislation; Secondly, China needs to adopt a systematic and comprehensive approach to legislating and governing the digital economy, ensuring the consistency and coherence of the system; Thirdly, China needs to conduct more basic research, pay attention to the ethical and legal implications, and keep the legal system up to date, so as to ensure the effectiveness of the law.