[Big Tech, Big Change③] Mobility Big Data Reservoir... Digital Map Featuring Popular Restaurants

SKT Analyzes 1.8 Billion Data Points from 18 Million T map Users to Provide Guidance

[Asia Economy Reporters Heungsun Kim and Jinkyu Lee] SK Telecom recently launched a website called 'T-map Gourmet Road' that recommends popular restaurants. This service carefully selects data related to restaurants and cafes frequently visited by users of SK Telecom's digital map service 'T-map' and guides users to suitable eateries by region. Among approximately 760,000 restaurants and 120,000 cafes registered nationwide on T-map, about 30,000 restaurants and 2,400 cafes were selected based on visit frequency. This is the result of analyzing about 1.8 billion restaurant and cafe visit data points from over 18 million T-map users over the past five years.

Han Hyun-jung, team leader of SK Telecom's Digital Communication Team who planned the website, said on the 17th, "This is the first case of creating content that can increase user interest based on the vast amount of data stored in T-map," adding, "Unlike existing restaurant search services on portal sites that rely on word-of-mouth or recommendations from visitors and include commercial advertisements, T-map Gourmet Road is based on data frequently accessed by drivers, so it has high reliability."

Digital map services are reservoirs of big data. They can analyze commercial districts or traffic environments in specific areas based on drivers' movement patterns. Data also accumulates on the characteristics of places individuals frequently visit and their driving habits. T-map is used by an average of 12.7 million people monthly and 4.47 million daily. Mobility data generated here amounts to 65 million cases daily and 23.7 billion annually. SK Telecom is expanding mobility service areas based on T-map big data, as with T-map Gourmet Road. Previously, it introduced 'T-map Parking,' which provides parking lot information near destinations, and is operating 'T-map Public Transportation,' which suggests alternative transportation such as subways and buses. The 'Driving Habits' service, which converts T-map driving records into driving scores to offer discounts on car insurance premiums, has also surpassed 2 million monthly users.

Naver recently integrated an artificial intelligence (AI) service called 'Smart Around' into Naver Maps to recommend restaurants. Launched in 2018, Smart Around recommends places worth visiting such as restaurants and cafes based on the user's location, gender, and age. It is used by over 4 million people monthly. Through Smart Around's personalized recommendations, about 28,000 new stores are exposed daily. Users can experience features such as 'Real-time Nearby Place Recommendations,' 'One-line Restaurant Reviews Summary,' and 'Popular Nearby Themes' on Naver Maps. Naver plans to link additional functions such as shopping and lifestyle benefits to Smart Around beyond recommending restaurants and places worth visiting.

KakaoMap also provides a service recommending local restaurants based on review and rating data from over 8.5 million monthly users. Recently, it has been offering information on mobility and transfer routes, convenience, and safety facilities for transportation-vulnerable individuals based on data from 1,107 subway stations nationwide.

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