Commercial remote-sensing is one of the applied fields of space activities which, like telecommunications but to a lesser extent, is in the process of recording a reapid rate of development. Fields of utilization for spatial imagery are numerous: ocean monitoring, crops monitoring, glaciology, meteorlogy, forestry, environmental watch, geology, etc. All those fields of interest could be gathered under the generic name of "earth-watching activities" which is somewhat larger than "remote-sensing." This article aims at presenting to Korean readers the main lines of development of five major players in the field, namely : the USA, France, Japan, Europe and Canada. This is not to exclude the role played by other active players such as the former USSR and other smaller though industrious space powers.