KT Koo Hyun-mo Administration Targets B2B Digital Innovation Market... Launch of 'KT Enterprise' Signal Flare

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] Koo Hyun-mo, CEO of KT, expressed an ambitious vision to lead the 'Digital Transformation (DX)' of South Korea. Leveraging a differentiated platform based on so-called 'ABC'?Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, and Cloud?KT is set to aggressively target the B2B (business-to-business) DX market. Rather than remaining confined to traditional telecommunications sectors such as mobile and IPTV, KT aims to expand its DX capabilities into the B2B market, known as the 'land of opportunity,' and lead innovation across other industries.

KT Holds Digital-X Summit... Unveils B2B Brand 'KT Enterprise'

On the 28th, KT declared its leap forward as a leading B2B DX company by hosting the 'Digital-X Summit 2020' at the Grand Intercontinental Seoul, fostering collaboration with stakeholders. At the opening stage, CEO Koo stated, “KT’s platform services based on AI, Big Data, and Cloud are applied across many industrial sectors, contributing to business innovation and the discovery of new growth engines,” adding, “With our proactively prepared DX capabilities and a foundation of mutual growth and cooperation, we will lead a paradigm shift in South Korea’s industries.”

On the same day, KT unveiled its new B2B brand, ‘KT Enterprise.’ The slogan presented by CEO Koo is ‘Digital Transformation Partner.’ This is interpreted as a declaration to accelerate the discovery and expansion of the B2B DX market based on KT’s ABC platform capabilities. CEO Koo emphasized, “The declaration to lead the B2B DX market marks a turning point and a solid foundation for KT’s next 100 years, a substantial leap forward. We will lead innovation in other industries and realize South Korea’s ‘DX Dream.’”

The global DX market is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 23%, reaching 2.3 trillion KRW (approximately 260 trillion KRW) by 2023. According to market research firms such as IDC, only 20% of domestic companies had plans to apply DX as of last year, but this is expected to expand to 80% by 2023.

KT, which has been steadily reducing the proportion of wired and wireless telecommunications revenue over recent years to accelerate its transition away from traditional telecom, has focused its capabilities on targeting the B2B market as a platform business since CEO Koo’s appointment. The share of wired and wireless telecommunications revenue, which was 66% in 2016, dropped to 50% in the first half of this year, while the revenue share from new growth areas such as IT and future industries rose to 50%. During the same period, the types of services nearly doubled from 45, including messaging and dedicated lines, to 94, including big data, local currency, security, and energy. The scale of business orders also grew at an average annual rate of 37%.

Going forward, KT plans to explosively grow the B2B market through DX services. It is discovering successful DX models in seven major sectors: finance, logistics, office environments, health, manufacturing, data centers, and SOC (social overhead capital), while expanding the DX market to local governments, education, construction, industrial complexes, and mixed-use complexes. Additionally, leveraging six major regional headquarters nationwide and group-level channels, KT aims to spread DX businesses to regions and SMEs, leading exemplary cases of the Korean New Deal such as 5G infrastructure construction and SOC digitalization. Alongside this, KT plans to pioneer new business models and expand the national B2B DX ecosystem through a win-win strategy encompassing large corporations, SMEs, and venture companies.

KT to Launch DX Platform Next Month Consolidating ABC Capabilities... Expanding Robot and Health Territories

KT, the nation’s leading cloud service provider, will launch the 'KT DX Platform' next month, integrating innovative services such as AI, Big Data, and Blockchain. This is part of KT’s aggressive expansion of its ABC business areas to advance its B2B operations. The KT DX Platform enables flexible provision of specialized services by linking third-party solutions on a single platform regardless of the customer’s business size, location, or industry.

Marking one year since declaring itself an 'AI-specialized company,' KT is driving industrial innovation by introducing AI across all sectors. Based on AI capabilities, KT is also intensifying its dominance in the service robot market, covering home to industrial environments with serving robots, patrol robots, companion robots, and cleaning robots. To this end, KT signed agreements in September with Stage Five and Nuo Robotics for AI companion robot business and established an 'AI Robot Team' led by Executive Vice President Jeon Hong-beom.

In the medical field, KT is building a platform to flexibly respond to surging demand caused by COVID-19 and is entering the AI healthcare business. In the short term, KT plans to focus on public medical services and smart hospital projects linked to the Korean New Deal. Looking ahead, KT aims to develop a non-face-to-face medical imaging solution called ‘KT Medical Makers (tentative name)’ to support 1:1 remote consultations between patients and doctors, remote collaborative treatment among medical staff, and establish next-generation medical service environments such as home AI healthcare.

In the big data sector, KT plans to lead national data projects by discovering differentiated new data businesses. KT provides free commercial district information analysis, including floating population and consumption data, to 6 million self-employed individuals and plans to support integrated online and offline marketing consulting for 700,000 SMEs. Additionally, KT intends to elevate the national ICT and financial industries by proposing a MyData business model in cooperation with Woori Financial Group.

Furthermore, KT is preparing to launch a 'Cloud One Team (tentative name).' By supporting related technical education and infrastructure, KT aims to lead the creation of a national cloud ecosystem and contribute to the completion of the Digital New Deal.

CEO Koo emphasized, “KT’s strategy to leap into a digital platform company and target the B2B market is backed by the ‘ABC+X’ capabilities and experience, which combine network infrastructure superiority and ABC technological prowess with specific industrial sectors to create business value.”

The Digital-X Summit was organized to announce KT’s leap as a leading B2B DX company and to foster collaboration with stakeholders such as the government, IT specialized companies, and venture capitalists. Besides CEO Koo, key presenters included President Park Yoon-young (Head of Enterprise Division), Yoon Sung-ro (Chairman of the 4th Industrial Revolution Committee), Nam Tae-hee (CEO of Storm Ventures), and Lim Se-hyun (Head of BC Card Center). Participants discussed ▲ the business environment transformed by DX ▲ growth strategies of companies through DX ▲ core competencies needed for DX growth ▲ and growth through collaboration with partner companies (3rd Party).

CEO Koo Hyun-mo Declares Transformation into a Digital Platform Company

At the management press conference held alongside the Digital-X Summit, CEO Koo also declared KT’s transformation into a digital platform company.

Since CEO Koo’s appointment earlier this year, KT has accelerated innovation as a customer-centric platform across various fields such as media and finance. With the acquisition of Hyundai HCN, KT Group’s media business revenue will reach 3 trillion KRW. Currently, KT is preparing financial innovation services based on BC Card, which holds the nation’s top payment platform, and KT’s ICT competitiveness. In the B2B market, AI/DX sector sales in the second quarter recorded a 16% growth year-on-year through innovative achievements such as AI call centers and blockchain.

CEO Koo stated, "KT is currently preparing new innovations beyond imagination,” adding, “We will enhance KT’s corporate value with meaningful market achievements while leading innovation in other industries to realize South Korea’s ‘DX Dream.’”

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