[Comprehensive] Unstoppable 'K App Market' One Store, MS and Deutsche Telekom Invest 16.8 Billion Won

SKT Secures Investment from Global Companies... "Proving One Store's Growth Potential"
K App Market Alliance Formed... IPO Expected to Gain Momentum

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] The domestic app market ‘One Store’ is making unstoppable progress. Following investments from KT and LG Uplus earlier this year, it has now successfully secured a total of $15 million (16.8 billion KRW) in funding from global big tech companies including Microsoft (MS) and Deutsche Telekom. This marks the formation of a so-called ‘K-App Market Alliance,’ with domestic and international telecom companies and global big tech firms participating as shareholders. Going forward, One Store’s global app market expansion as well as its upcoming initial public offering (IPO) are expected to gain momentum.

◇ Equity Investment from MS and DTCP... Ultra-Collaboration

On the 1st, SK Telecom announced that its subsidiary One Store has confirmed investment from MS and Deutsche Telekom’s investment firm DTCP. This comes just about three months after securing equity investments from domestic mobile carriers such as KT and LG Uplus.

With this investment, One Store, the second-largest app market in Korea, has been recognized externally for its growth potential and is regarded as a solid competitor in the app market dominated by Google Play and others. SK Telecom emphasized, "One Store has secured its status as Korea’s representative app market with domestic and international telecom companies and global IT firms as shareholders."

The total investment amount from MS and DTCP is 16.8 billion KRW. However, the exact equity stakes by each company have not been disclosed. The existing shareholding structure was SK Telecom 50.1%, Naver 26.3%, financial investors 18.6%, KT 3.1%, LG Uplus 0.7%, and others 1.2%. Considering the previous investments by KT (21 billion KRW) and LG Uplus (5 billion KRW), it is estimated to be around 1% each.

This investment is also an extension of SK Telecom’s strategic partnership with MS and Deutsche Telekom in areas such as 5G. Various collaborations are expected to continue in the mid to long term, including ▲ nurturing the gaming ecosystem ▲ discovering new opportunities for domestic game creators and content ▲ cloud cooperation ▲ global platform expansion.

These companies are also expected to assist One Store’s global expansion. One Store anticipates creating opportunities to enter the global mobile game market based on Deutsche Telekom’s influence in the European market. When global game companies release games on One Store, it can serve as a bridge for direct distribution to the European market. The global spread of various K-content such as webtoons and e-books beyond games is also expected to gain further momentum.

◇ Accelerated ‘IPO Clock’ for One Store

One Store’s IPO scheduled for this year is also gaining speed. As the first SK Telecom subsidiary to go public, One Store is expected to apply for preliminary review for listing on the Korea Exchange (KOSPI) as early as this month. The likely listing period is the third quarter.

One Store successfully turned an annual profit for the first time last year, proving its business competitiveness. Transaction volume has grown for 11 consecutive quarters through the first quarter of this year. According to IGAWorks, One Store’s growth rate in Q1 this year reached 35.2% compared to the same period last year. This is about 4.5 times higher than the growth rates of other global app markets. Despite controversies over so-called ‘app tolls,’ One Store’s bold reduction of app market fees and efforts to coexist with developers are beginning to yield results. As of August last year, One Store’s domestic app market share was 18.3%, ranking second after Google Play.

Recently, One Store has strengthened its content business capabilities by acquiring the genre novel publisher Rock Media and establishing a joint venture (JV) content studio with Yes24. This is seen as a move to build a ‘K-content’ distribution value chain by securing intellectual property (IP) such as webtoons and web novels and producing various content.

Lee Jaehwan, CEO of One Store, said, "We have taken a step forward as Korea’s representative app market with domestic and international telecom companies and global IT firms as shareholders. Based on this investment, we will focus more on creating a healthy domestic app market ecosystem and accelerate our global expansion." Ha Hyungil, Head of SK Telecom’s Corporate 2 Center, expressed expectations, saying, "The equity investment from MS and DTCP is not just a financial investment but an important momentum for strengthening One Store’s competitiveness and innovating the Korean ICT ecosystem."

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