SKT, 1Q Operating Profit 494.8 Billion KRW Up 14.4% ... "Smooth Progress in Wired, Wireless & Enterprise Business"

SK Telecom posted strong first-quarter results this year, with operating profit approaching 500 billion KRW, driven by balanced growth across its key businesses including wired and wireless communications and enterprise services.

On a consolidated basis, SKT announced on the 10th that it recorded sales of 4.3722 trillion KRW and operating profit of 494.8 billion KRW in the first quarter of this year. These figures represent increases of 2.2% and 14.4%, respectively, compared to the same period last year. Net profit rose 37.3% year-on-year to 302.5 billion KRW.

On a separate basis, sales reached 3.1173 trillion KRW and operating profit was 415.7 billion KRW, growing 1.3% and 16.5% respectively compared to the same period last year. SK Broadband posted sales of 1.0615 trillion KRW, up 3.5% year-on-year. Operating profit was 76.1 billion KRW, a slight increase of 0.1% compared to the previous year.

By business segment, the media business recorded sales of 393.2 billion KRW, growing more than 10% year-on-year, showing significant expansion. This growth was attributed to solid wired and wireless leadership, achieving quantitative growth across the media business including content, advertising, and commerce.

The enterprise business also saw sales increase 5.8% year-on-year to 386.2 billion KRW. In particular, sales from data centers and cloud services grew rapidly by 28.2% and 22.3% respectively compared to the previous year. In the first quarter, SKT secured the largest-scale order in the AICC (AI Contact Center) sector, which it launched last year.

Subscription services are also progressing smoothly. ‘T Universe’ achieved over 1.8 million monthly active users in the first quarter. The global metaverse platform ‘Ifland,’ launched last year in 49 countries, also showed strong performance by attracting more than 10% of its first-quarter monthly active users from overseas. Recently, SKT launched the personalized space ‘Ifhome’ and plans to accelerate growth by strengthening its economic system with an in-app payment-based content market in the second half of the year.

The wired and wireless communications business continues to grow steadily. As of the end of the first quarter, the number of 5G subscribers reached 14.15 million, exceeding 60% of the total customer base. Earlier in March, SKT announced a revision of its 5G plans considering diverse usage patterns and age group characteristics. At the beginning of this month, it launched a ‘5G Customized Plan,’ and next month it plans to release the ‘Zero Youth Plan’ which expands data allowances and adds youth-specific benefits, thereby increasing customer choice and benefits.

In the wired market, SKT continues subscriber growth by ranking first in net additions for IPTV and high-speed internet. As of the end of the first quarter, the number of paid broadcasting subscribers was 9.4 million, and high-speed internet subscribers numbered 6.76 million.

This year, SKT is aggressively pushing its transformation and leap forward as an AI company. Leveraging years of accumulated AI services and technological capabilities, it will lead innovation centered on five key areas: customers and technology, time and space, industry (AIX), core business models, and ESG, under the ‘AI to Everywhere’ strategy.

Last month, SKT made a strategic partnership and invested 15 billion KRW in Scatter Lab, which owns the AI agent ‘Iruda.’ The two companies will closely collaborate in various AI-related fields, including the development of a large-scale language model (LLM) that encompasses both emotional and knowledge domains.

Additionally, SKT plans to accelerate its leap as an AI company by continuously strengthening cooperation with top global AI firms in areas such as large-scale language models, AI technologies, and services.

Kim Jin-won, SKT’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), said, “We will do our best to ensure that the leap and transformation into an AI company, based on balanced growth across key business areas, leads to maximizing corporate and shareholder value.”

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