By Kim Yoo-chul
SK Telecom said Friday that it will increase its investment in big data-related platforms in order to diversify its revenue streams amid an era of the Internet of Things (IoT).
The company, Korea's top telecom carrier, identified IoT as its what's next to offset growing concerns by investors for corporate sustainability to beat out saturation in the local telecom market.
"SK Telecom will invest more in IoT-, big data- and healthcare-related business solutions this year as we believe those areas have huge growth potential and could benefit us in sync with our leadership in the local telecommunications sector," said an official at the company.
As he said, big data ― the ability to analyze and to understand massive data sets ― has been heralded as revolutionary for financial services and is seen as a major IT trend.
Another SK Telecom official said, "The promise is huge."
The compute power and analytic software now exist to interrogate unimaginably huge amounts of data, on a scale that would have been previously impossible.
For example, the SK Group's telecom affiliate plans to hold more competitions, dubbed "Big Data Analytic Festivals," to help local application developers boost their ability to supply more content that will run on within SK's big data systems.
While SK Telecom has long been a leader in the telecom market with its share slightly exceeding over 50 percent, its corporate sustainability is being questioned as the company still heavily relies on traditional telecom services as a revenue scheme.
"Pressures to upgrade networks, to cut telecom bills and to offset concerns over falling profitability asked us to find new businesses. We agreed that the local telecom industry is being crowded," said another SK official.
For details, the company is on track to develop solutions that will be customized to vehicle management systems, to save energy and to improve healthcare-oriented solutions.
Additionally, it's been teaming up with major platform providers to hedge its risk on investment for new businesses that haven't been existed before.
"SK's moves to expand its business territories will help us cut its financial burden for investment in networks. For instance, a vehicle management system using IoT technology doesn't need to have additional investment," said Lee Hak-moo, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities.
"Its diversified business strategies will help investors receive more dividend, which is positive for foreign investors," said Lee in a report.