SK Telecom Gears Up for More Growth in 201

Announces strategic directions for 2011; unveils three management policies for the year

SK Telecom’s President & CEO Ha Sung-Min on Jan. 12 unveiled the company’s new strategic directions for 2011 as the company gears up for stronger growth, both in the Korean and international markets.
The new plans will focus on “Speed, Openness and Collaboration”, and involve making SK Telecom a more agile and speedier organization in order to strengthen its market leadership as well as capture more opportunities in new sectors through open collaboration with partners. In addition, SK Telecom plans to open up more of its breakthrough technologies to the developer community, and at the same time seek more partnerships, especially in emerging areas such as NFC and Cloud Computing.
“The power of SK Telecom comes from its young, agile organization. Armed with a speedier organization, we will further solidify our market leadership in the fixed-mobile convergence, enhance our networks for increased data traffic, as well as release differentiated data services and expand our smartphone line-up,” said Ha.
Ha also emphasized the importance of openness and collaboration. “We are no longer living in an era where a company alone can grow and thrive in the ICT industry. Now it is imperative that the whole industry achieve co-growth through the spirit of openness and collaboration,” he said.
YOUNG, SPEEDY ORGANIZATION ― “SK Telecom will first focus on making speedy decisions and become the fastest in the industry to produce tangible results in customer service and network competition,” Ha said.
SK Telecom plans to launch commercial LTE service in Seoul in the third quarter of this year, thereby opening a new era of 4G mobile technologies. Building on its competitive edge in 3G networks, the company will also make heavy investments in high-speed Wi-Fi and data femtocell.
SK Telecom also created a new Platform Business organization, which aims to boost the company’s growing platform business in parallel with the network operating business
‘OPENESS’ AND ‘COLLABORATION’ - Stressing the importance of openness and collaboration, Ha said: “The only way for companies in the ICT industry to succeed in this era of hyper-competition is to pursue co-growth by engaging in open collaboration.”
Last year, SK Telecom made it a goal to become a global platform company by opening up base technologies for its key platforms. The company shared APIs of its SNS, LBS and messaging service with external developers, thereby allowing them to create innovative services. In line with this, the company will now make stronger efforts to open APIs of its competitive services so as to create a friendlier environment for developers.
Furthermore, with the spirit of openness and collaboration, SK Telecom also plans to work together with its competitors to promote new growth areas like NFC and Cloud Computing by co-developing technologies and making joint investments in infrastructure.
TANGIBLE OUTCOMES ABROAD - Ha said, “This year marks the beginning of our full-fledged efforts in the platform business. We will make an all-out effort to strengthen our execution capability to generate tangible results in this field. In line with this, we will constantly expand the scope of the platform business by developing new platforms like Smart TV and connecting to existing ones such as multi screen video services.”
As for the company’s global business, Ha said: “SK Telecom will add momentum to its IPE business and advance into the overseas markets with services including Smart Office, Smart CEO, MIV (Mobile In Vehicle) and smart grid. In addition, the company will promote globalization of T-Store, aiming for solid results within the first half of 2011.”
In addition, So Jin-Woo, President of Platform Business and Co-CEO of SK Telecom said, “Growth of and competition in the future global market will not be determined by a single company but by the whole ecosystem. SK Telecom will make strenuous efforts to expand this ecosystem through forward-looking, innovative open collaboration”.
SK ParticipateS in Mobile World Congress 2011
Unveils many new innovative technology and services at the exhibition
SK Telecom participated at the GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2011 in Barcelona, Spain as the only Korean telecom operator, will open a large exhibition area at 8A147 of Hall 8 Building to showcase its cutting-edge technology and services.
The MWC is the world’s largest exhibition and conference for the mobile industry, organized annually by the GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communication Association), an association of around 1000 mobile operators, handset manufactures and equipment providers from over 210 countries.
Serving as a GSMA board member, SK Telecom has driven innovations in the global telecommunications market. The company opened an exhibition area of 234㎡ to show 19 future technologies and state-of-the-art services.
SK Telecom displayed diverse platform-related technologies and services to accelerate growth of its platform business and create new business opportunities in the global market.
Furthermore, the company demonstrated its determination to become a leader in the upcoming “smart era” by showing its smart cloud-based LTE network technology and solution, which is to be commercialized in the second half of this year.
SK Telecom said the show would serve as an opportunity to secure world-class technological prowess and lay strong basis for its global business by forging R&D partnerships with overseas operators.
It showcased advanced platform technology and services for the global market. nw

SK Telecom Earns 12.4 Tln won in Revenue in 2010
SK Telecom (NYSE:SKM) announced its earnings for the year 2010: revenue of 12.460 trillion won, operating income of 2.035 trillion won and net income of 1.411 trillion won. Wireless Internet revenue marked 3.011 trillion won representing a 13.2 percent rise from that of the year 2009.
The revenues increased by 3 percent compared to the previous year to record 12.460 trillion won supported by growth of subscriber number and wireless Internet revenue, mainly attributable to smartphone market boom, despite the introduction of pay-per-second billing and reduction of activation fees.
Operating income stood at 2.035 trillion, down 6.6% compared to 2009, resulting from growth in depreciation cost and temporary increase in fees caused by improved structure of handset installment receivables. Net income recorded 1.411 trillion won, representing a 9.5% rise compared to the previous year.
Pursuant to the Marketing Expense Guideline of KCC, marketing expense marked 2.974 trillion won. The marketing expense to revenue ratio was 24.2%, down 0.5 percentage point compared to the previous year.
Furthermore, the CapEx for 2010 totaled1.845 trillion won as the company expanded investments in 3G and Wi-Fi networks in response to the rapidly increasing data traffic.
The 2010 cumulative number of subscribers rose by 5.9% compared to 2009 to reach 25.71 million and ARPU edged down by 2.6% to 41,374 won. ARPU excluding activation fee and connection fee marked 36,204 won, down 1.5% compared to the previous year, while fourth quarter ARPU excluding activation fee and connection fee was 36,676 won, up 1.1% quarter-on-quarter.
For the fourth quarter of 2010, the revenues increased by 2.3% year-on-year to mark 3.172 trillion won. Also compared to the same period last year, the operating income climbed 2.3% to 453.1 billion won and net income increased by 48% to 361.4 billion won. Wireless Internet revenue for the fourth quarter of 2010 was 863.5 billion won growing by 22.4% year-on-year and 12.4% quarter-on-quarter.
Ha Sung-Min, President and CEO of SK Telecom said, “SK Telecom has firmly maintained its position as the market leader amid countless challenges. In 2011, SK Telecom will make all-out efforts to foster platform business based on the open platform strategy and make it into a strong growth driver like the company’s MNO business.”
Ha also stressed that, “SK Telecom will continue to provide stable data services by upgrading and expanding its 3G, LTE, and Wi-Fi networks. At the same time, SK Telecom will refrain from becoming embroiled in the marketing war of attrition and position itself as the market shaper by creating new growth engines.” nw