SK telecom’s Q1 OP up 0.8% on year led by B2B growth

[Courtesy of SK telecom Co.]

SK telecom Co. saw its first-quarter operating profit increase by 0.8 percent from a year ago on the back of an increase in mobile revenue driven by 5G subscribers and continued growth in business-to-business (B2B) transactions.

According to SK telecom on Wednesday, its first-quarter revenue reached 4.48 trillion won ($3.28 billion), up 2.3 percent from the same period a year ago. Its operating profit came to 498.5 billion won, up 0.8 percent.

Mobile revenue, which accounts for a lion’s share of the company’s revenue, amounted to 2.66 trillion won in the first quarter, up 1.4 percent from a year ago.

The proportion of 5G subscribers increased by 2 percent from the previous quarter, reaching 70 percent of the entire subscribers.

The number of roaming users, in particular, contributed to the growth, reaching 1.39 million, up 55 percent from the previous year.

The impact of subsidies provided to subscribers who switched carriers before the law change appeared to be negligible, as marketing costs were reduced by 37.2 billion won year-on-year in the first quarter.

[Courtesy of SK telecom Co.]

However, forecasts suggest that the impact of the subsidies implemented since mid-March, coupled with the introduction of low-cost 5G plans at the end of March, may adversely affect mobile revenue from the second quarter onward.

Corporate revenue, particularly from B2B transactions, reached 415.4 billion won in the first quarter, up 9 percent from the same period last year.

In its efforts to reposition itself as an artificial intelligence-driven company, SK telecom announced significant achievements in the field of AI.

Its AI assistant application, A., surpassed 4 million cumulative subscribers as of April. The telco has increased the proportion of AI staff to 40 percent of its total workforce, adding 573 employees in January last year.

In June, the company plans to launch a telco-specific large language model (LLM) and expand its global presence through cooperation with international telecom operators.