Sangjin Park, CEO of Metanet Mplatform, "We Will Leap Forward as a Digital Marketing Platform Company"

Interview with Park Sang-jin, CEO of Metanet Mplatform, Ahead of March KOSDAQ Market Listing

Sangjin Park, CEO of Metanet Mplatform

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] Metanet Mplatform, which is scheduled to be listed on the KOSDAQ market next month, is taking a step forward as a digital marketing platform company based on the growth of the contact center industry.

Park Sang-jin, CEO of Metanet Mplatform, said in an interview with Asia Economy on the 12th, "As demand for contact center services continues to expand, Metanet Mplatform aims to become a platform company that can provide customers with the best marketing services based on its extensive contact center operation experience and digital capabilities."

Metanet Mplatform is a company engaged in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). BPO refers to outsourcing part of a company's tasks to external firms to improve work efficiency, reduce costs, and increase productivity. Metanet Mplatform focuses on contact center (call center + customer center) outsourcing operations within the BPO business and is expanding its business scope with services such as direct mail (DM) dispatch.

The contact center outsourcing business that Metanet Mplatform focuses on was previously centered on simple telemarketing services. However, recently, by utilizing advanced contact center operation platforms, the scope has expanded to provide comprehensive services from marketing planning to operation for client companies, as well as handling traditional tasks such as receiving and processing customer requests.

CEO Park emphasized that as the areas requiring contact center services expand, the growth potential of the related market is also increasing. He said, "As offline channels decrease, demand for non-face-to-face channels is rising, so the demand for contact center services that can perform customer management as well as customer touchpoint functions for marketing will continue to grow."

Additionally, the trend of companies preferring specialized workforce outsourcing over direct employment to reduce costs also raises expectations for market growth. CEO Park stated, "If companies operate contact centers on their own, inefficiencies are inevitable due to lack of experience and know-how. More companies will entrust tasks to outsourcing firms that can maintain high-level services while reducing costs." The size of the company-operated contact center market was about 3.4 trillion KRW as of 2017.

Metanet Mplatform currently maintains long-term contact center outsourcing contracts with over 110 clients, securing a stable market position. The current contact center market is dominated by the 'top 3' operators: Metanet Mplatform, Hyosung ITX, and Ubase. CEO Park predicted, "Since leading companies have advantages in investment and responding to market changes, market consolidation centered on top companies will accelerate in the future." Currently, financial institutions such as Samsung Card, Kookmin Card, and Kookmin Bank account for more than 60% of the company's clients, with e-commerce companies and gaming firms forming the rest.

The company also evaluates its ownership of a proprietary digital operation platform, which allows it to provide contact center services at reasonable prices, as a favorable factor for future market share expansion. It owns the self-developed contact center solution 'Metahub,' enabling it to offer services at relatively lower prices than competitors without their own solutions. CEO Park said, "While customers such as financial firms may prefer expensive overseas systems for stable contact center systems, many customers want efficient solutions at reasonable prices. Metahub can meet these customer demands," expressing confidence.

While maintaining a stable business structure, sales performance has steadily increased. The company's sales exceeded 300 billion KRW in 2018, recording an average annual growth rate of 16.3% over three years since 2016. Last year, sales reached 264 billion KRW by the third quarter, with annual sales expected to reach 350 billion KRW. Operating profit, which was 17.3 billion KRW in 2018, is also expected to exceed 20 billion KRW last year.

The public offering funds will be used to build a smart contact center by introducing data analytics, cloud Software as a Service (SaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS). CEO Park said, "Based on IT technology, we will digitalize human-centered operations to provide more efficient services." The company also plans to strengthen capabilities it does not possess through mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Previously, the company conducted M&A with contact center operation companies such as Ezios and data analysis specialist Ncore.

Metanet Mplatform plans to raise 7,327,000 shares through this public offering. The desired public offering price range is 12,500 to 15,000 KRW per share, with a total expected offering amount of approximately 91.6 billion to 109.9 billion KRW. Demand forecasting (pre-subscription for institutional investors) will be held over two days on the 2nd and 3rd of next month, followed by general subscription on the 9th and 10th, with listing on the KOSDAQ market scheduled for the 18th of next month. The lead underwriter is Mirae Asset Daewoo.

CEO Park Sang-jin was born in 1965 and holds a bachelor's and master's degree in engineering technology from Western Illinois University and a doctorate in industrial technology engineering from Iowa State University. He has served as head of the venture and content division at Samsung SDS, executive director of IT strategy at Dongbu Group, vice president overseeing TMT and TI at Deloitte Consulting, and CEO of Hansol Secure. He has been serving as CEO of Metanet Mplatform since last year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.