'Successful Landing' T-Uju, Ignited Subscription Competition

SKT 'T Woosoo' Subscribers Soon Reach 2 Million
LG Uplus Counters with Paid Service in April
KT Prepares to Launch Commerce Euro Subscription

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-seon] SK Telecom's paid subscription service ‘T Wooju’ has surpassed 1.5 million subscribers and is approaching 2 million. Notably, more than half of the subscribers are from the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z), marking a significant milestone in securing future growth. KT and LG Uplus also plan to launch paid subscription services in the first half of the year, featuring ‘commerce’ and ‘online video services (OTT)’ as their flagship products, respectively, signaling the start of a full-scale competition among the three major telecom companies in ‘paid memberships’.

According to the telecommunications industry on the 15th, LG Uplus plans to monetize its free subscription service around April and expand its launch. The focus will be on OTT discounts such as Netflix and Disney Plus, as well as strengthening kids’ content. The price is expected to be around 10,000 KRW per month.

KT also aims to launch a paid subscription service in the first half of the year, offering discounts through various partnerships including IPTV and home shopping. The monthly subscription fee will be set at a similar level to competitors, around 9,000 to 10,000 KRW. Although KT and LG Uplus missed the opportunity to preempt SK Telecom, they plan to quickly enter the market by introducing services with proven stability, minimizing risk.

SK Telecom is steadily increasing T Wooju membership subscribers and growing it as a flagship product. T Wooju is a subscription service combining food, shopping, and content products, available at 4,900 KRW and 9,900 KRW per month. It offers free shipping from Amazon, the world’s largest e-commerce company, access to the OTT service Wavve, and discounts on food and beverages such as Baedal Minjok and Starbucks. SK Telecom expects T Wooju subscribers to exceed 2 million around March. Monthly revenue from paid memberships ranges from 10 billion to 20 billion KRW, reaching 1.2 trillion to 2.4 trillion KRW annually. Especially, 70% of subscribers are aged 20 to 40, with rapid growth centered on younger generations. SK Telecom plans to become a leading subscription commerce platform business, achieving a total merchandise sales volume (GMV) of 8 trillion KRW, sales of 1.8 trillion KRW, and 36 million subscribers by 2025.

Telecom companies view ‘paid subscription products’ as a core revenue source in the post-telecom era. Subscription services combined with content not only create a stable revenue structure but also enable the collection of anonymized big data on customers. This helps in transitioning to personalized services in the future. SK Telecom forecasts that the domestic subscription market size will grow from 49 trillion KRW in 2020 to 100 trillion KRW by 2025.

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