One Store CEO: "Beyond Korea to the World... Breaking Down Mobile-PC Boundaries"

New Vision 'Global Multi-OS Content Platform'
Collaboration with MS, Tencent, Blizzard, etc.
Cross-Platform Strategies like 'One Game Loop'
Expanding Story Content Value Chain

Lee Jaehwan, CEO of One Store, is announcing the new vision "Global Multi-OS Content Platform" at an online press conference on the morning of the 23rd.

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] "We have completed preparations for the journey beyond the Korean mobile app market to become a ‘global multi-operating system (OS) content platform.’"

Lee Jae-hwan, CEO (pictured) who has led the native app market One Store with a ‘fair commission’ policy for over five years since its launch, is expanding the stage globally. Together with major partners from the U.S. and China such as Microsoft, Tencent, and Blizzard Entertainment, it is reborn as an integrated platform that transcends the boundaries between PC and mobile.

Partnering with Leading U.S. and Chinese Companies

At an online press conference on the morning of the 23rd, CEO Lee declared, "We will grow into a leading company that produces and distributes diverse content across multiple devices and operating systems (OS) targeting the global market," and announced the leap to a global multi-OS content platform.

One Store was established in 2016 as a joint effort by the three major telecom companies and Naver to compete against Google and Apple. In 2018, to promote coexistence with developers, it lowered the industry-standard 30% app market commission to 20%. It also took bold steps by allowing in-app payments and reducing commissions to 5%. Thanks to this, it achieved 12 consecutive quarters of transaction growth through Q2 2021, with transaction volume soaring to 550 billion KRW in the first half of the year. In June, Microsoft and DTCP, an investment firm of Deutsche Telekom, joined as shareholders, recognizing its growth potential.

The company is making this year its first year of global expansion, moving away from the local market. One Store is building a global service platform based on Microsoft Azure Cloud. Developers will be able to release builds launched domestically in multiple countries without modification. One Store is also discussing multifaceted partnerships with local payment providers and telecom companies.

One Store plans to ride the cross-play trend that allows content enjoyment across mobile and PC by partnering with Tencent. Soon, it will launch 'One Game Loop,' a cross-platform service through Tencent Cloud that enables mobile games to be distributed and played on other devices such as PCs. It also plans to explore synergies between Microsoft’s MS Store and One Store.

Customized Advertising Business... Expanding the Story Content Value Chain

One Store plans to promote its advertising business based on abundant data in collaboration with big data platform company IGAWorks. By combining One Store’s accumulated data with IGAWorks’ in-app advertising platform, it aims to provide ads optimized for customer characteristics. Customers who view ads will receive points usable for One Store’s in-app payments, creating a structure where developers earn both advertising revenue and in-app payment revenue.

The company also plans to expand its business across the entire story content value chain. Recently, it invested in Kuaikan, China’s number one webtoon platform. Through this investment, One Store secured the domestic priority distribution rights for Kuaikan’s content and will also play a role in introducing domestic content to the Chinese market via Kuaikan. It plans to jointly produce webtoons targeting global customers and convert them into intellectual property (IP) for video and game adaptations. In line with this, the ‘One Store Books’ brand has been renamed to ‘One Story.’

Meanwhile, in the domestic market, One Store has achieved results by increasing blockbuster game titles through strategic partnerships with global game company Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard recently released its world’s number one free digital card game, ‘Hearthstone,’ on One Store. The upcoming ‘Diablo Immortal,’ based on the Diablo franchise currently in development, will also be available on One Store.

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