Editorial by CEO Ryu Young-sang

Creating a solid path for growth

When I became CEO of SKT, my first priority was to create a more solid path for the company following the horizontal spin-off of SK Square. To this end, we redefined our business centered around five business groups – i.e. Fixed and Mobile Telecommunications, Media, Enterprise, AIVERSE (AI + Universe), and Connected Intelligence – to accelerate our growth and innovations. And our strong commitment began generating tangible results despite the uncertainties in the global economy.

We are maintaining solid growth and profitability in our Fixed and Mobile Telecommunications Business with the number of 5G subscribers exceeding 50% of our total mobile subscriber base. We are also aggressively expanding the Enterprise Business, which posted a two-digit growth for two straight quarters.

Launched last year, our subscription service ‘T Universe’ and metaverse service ‘Ifland’ are gaining popularity in the market. At present, ‘T Universe’ has around 1.3 million monthly active users and Ifland reached 8.7 million cumulative downloads. Our Media Business is showing remarkable growth, posting revenue of KRW 382.1 billion in the second quarter of this year.

We are also developing future-leading technologies that can benefit the society. We are focusing on the Connected Intelligence Business, which includes advanced AI robotics and urban air mobility, to take customer experience and convenience to the next level.

Reinforcing efforts to increase corporate value

A year has passed since I became CEO of SKT and now I have another mission to accomplish. As I believe that our solid business performance is not yet fully reflected in our stock prices, we will be making redoubled efforts to enhance our corporate value.

We will further solidify our market leadership by expanding our Fixed and Mobile Telecommunications Business and developing new business models. Also, with our strong foundation in the telecommunications business, we are well positioned to reap fruitful results in subscription services in the near future. Constant efforts will also be made to keep our Media and Enterprise Business on the growth track to double their revenues through aggressive investment and creative ideas.

To date, we have implemented a series of actions aimed at increasing shareholder value. For instance, we have canceled treasury stocks worth around KRW 2 trillion, set a stable quarterly dividend policy, conducted a five-to-one stock split, and held online shareholder meetings. We will continue to strengthen shareholder-friendly management and respond proactively to the demands of our customers and the market.

Redefining businesses with AI

Over the past five years, we have diversified our business by venturing into new areas. Now we are preparing for the next decade by creating a new wave of innovations through AI transformation. It has been years since we began concentrating our efforts on developing and securing AI competencies and we are moving closer to generating tangible results.

We are actively applying AI to our core businesses including Fixed and Mobile Telecommunications and Media Business, while developing diverse business models that can drive new growth. In May, we opened the beta version of ‘A.,’ a character-based virtual assistant service built on a massive AI language model (GPT-3). We expect ‘A.’ to constantly evolve and become our key service over time. At the same time, we will actively promote investments and acquisitions to create synergies in AI and secure growth momentum.

By redefining all our businesses with AI, we will be writing a whole new chapter in our history, creating greater value for all stakeholders.