Park Jae-hyuk is a seasoned journalist who has provided comprehensive coverage of South Korea's corporate dynamics, economic policies, industry challenges and the global positioning of Korean companies. Based on the articles he has written since joining The Korea Times in 2016, his investigative approach has helped readers understand corporate governance, economic trends and business strategies shaping South Korea’s economy.
ChatGPT fever prompts Korean firms to seek profits from AI services
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By Park Jae-hyuk
By Park Jae-hyuk
The launch of the paid version of ChatGPT has prompted Korean IT and telecommunication firms to seek ways to earn money from their artificial intelligence (AI) services, according to industry officials, Thursday.
Naver has been the most aggressive in commercializing its AI services, as its subsidiary, Snow, is already charging 4,500 won ($3.5) to 9,900 won per month for its AI Avatar service, which creates three-dimensional images, once its users upload selfies. The service has not only gained popularity in Korea but also in Japan. It has also made inroads into the Chinese market recently.
Naver's product known as Clova Dubbing, an AI-powered text-to-voice service costs 19,900 won to 89,900 won per month.
“Our goal is to introduce Naver's own improved search service called SearchGPT within the first half of this year,” Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon told investors during a conference call earlier this month on the company's fourth-quarter earnings.
Kakao has also made efforts to develop its own subscription-paid AI services. Kakao Brain, Kakao's subsidiary specializing in AI services, plans to unveil the paid version of B Discover, an AI-powered image creator application. Its free version was launched last year to target global customers.
During a conference call this month, Kakao disclosed its plans to come up with KoGPT chatbot which will be fluent in Korean. The company will also launch its medical diagnostic AI service, which can analyze chest X-ray images, in Australia.
Telecommunication firms have regarded their AI services as new growth engines.
SK Telecom, which disclosed its AI service, A. (A dot), last May. It will launch the service this year to use mostly to respond to its customers.
“We are also considering coming up with a new business model to make profits from the AI service,” an SK Telecom official said.
KT and LG Uplus seek to make money from each of their AI technologies by allowing various companies to use their technologies at customer service centers.
KT is said to have talked with major financial service companies to establish an AI customer center based on the telecommunication firm's hyper-scale AI, known as Mideum. LG Uplus has developed business-to-business (B2B) services to use its hyper-scale AI, called Exaone, at customer service centers.
However, it seems to take a certain amount of time for the AI services of Korean companies to be profitable. Kakao CEO Hong Eun-taek admitted this problem, pointing out that AI-related services launched across the globe have yet to generate stable earnings.