SK Telecom President Jang Dong-hyun.

SK Telecom is giving a helping hand to startups with its advanced ICT technologies. 

The “Bravo! Restart” program is the telecom provider’s representative project designed to boost venture companies, thus boosting the creative economy. Forty six teams have been so far incubated under the program, which made its debut in May 2013. They include 12 teams, which have been launched early this year as its 4th term rendition. 

Under the program, SK Telecom is offering systematic support to venture businessmen differentiating themselves from other companies. The telecom service provider participates in a process of jointly developing and commercializing scores of ICT business items. Beneficiary companies of the program are expected to walk the walk at least three months after they join the program. Out of the 12 companies which have signed up for their participation in the program for this year, three beneficiaries have already made a feat of reaping sales worth about 8 billion won. 

For instance, Radsone, a music sound company, has employed its own solution that is designed to improve the quality of sound to the neck-band Bluetooth headset “TonePlus” LG Electronics introduced to the Mobile World Congress 2016 held in Barcelona, Spain, this past February. 

SK Telecom officials gesture with SME beneficiaries of the Bravo! Restart,” SK Telecom ‘s project to boost venture companies. (Photos:SK Telecom)

SK Telecom Announces 2016 1Q Earnings 

SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) on April 28 announced its earnings on a K-IFRS consolidated basis for the first quarter of 2016: revenue of 4.229 trillion won, operating income of 402.1 billion won and net income of 572.3 billion won.

The revenue stood at 4.229 trillion won, edging down 0.3 percent year-year due to the elimination of sign-up fees and increased number of subscribers who choose contract-based mobile fee discounts.

The operating income dropped 0.1percent to 402.1 billion won due to expanded expenses caused by growth in subsidiaries’ business activities.

Despite reduced equity method gain from SK Hynix, the net income increased by 29.3 percent to stand at 572.3 billion won as SK Planet sold its controlling stake in Loen Entertainment in the first quarter of 2016.

With the continuous spread of its differentiated LTE services, as of the end of March 2016, the number of SK Telecom’s LTE subscribers marked 19.53 million, taking up over 67.5 percent of the company’s total mobile subscriber base.

In the first quarter of 2016, SK Telecom has focused on strengthening its core competitiveness as a mobile carrier through customer-oriented innovations, differentiated services/products and enhanced mobile network quality. The company said that it is concentrating on shifting the market paradigm by promoting a product/service-oriented competition through the launch of many new differentiated services in the areas of Lifestyle Enhancement Platform, Media Platform and IoT Platform.

SK Telecom has led the popularity of budget smartphones by introducing its exclusive mobile handset Luna and its follow-up model Sol. In addition, launched in March 2016, Luna Watch has become an instant hit thanks to its high cost-effectiveness and sophisticated design.

Moreover, SK Telecom has been making efforts to provide differentiated customer benefits by introducing new Lifestyle Enhancement Platforms including “T Pay,” a hands-free & barcode mobile payment service, and “T Life,” a mobile app that offers special time-specific discount benefits at shopping malls, coffee shops and restaurants.

As the result of these efforts, in March 2016, the company ranked number one, for 19 consecutive years, in the category of mobile telecommunications service by National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI). SK Broadband has also ranked number one, for six years in a row, in the categories of broadband Internet and IPTV by NCSI. SK Telecom has reorganized SK Planet’s business structure. In particular, through the split and merging of SK Planet’s LBS business division including the T Map service, SK Telecom aims to create synergies in diverse Lifestyle Enhancement Platform businesses such as online-to-offline (O2O), location-based services (LBS) and big data.