Jin-won Kim
Analyst · your question
[Foreign Language] [Interpreted] Good afternoon. This is Jin-won Kim, CFO of SK Telecom. [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] SK Telecom celebrated the first anniversary of the spin-off on November 1. With the launch of SKT 2.0, we redefined our business into five business groups to ensure that each business group within the telecom business could enjoy fair recognition of its value in the market. Even though the circumstances surrounding our business continue to be challenging, we have produced meaningful results in the telecom based new businesses on the back of stable Fixed and Mobile business performance. [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] While the past strategy of SK Telecom was activate expansion into new business areas, SK Telecoms growth story for the next decade can be summed up as AI transformation. Customer engagement is key in this new era and AI has the potential to transform every industry. Against this backdrop, we have been focusing on building AI capabilities over the past years. Going forward, we aim to deliver better earnings with business model innovation through AI transformation, thereby enhancing our corporate value. [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] SK Telecom will achieve a new vision of becoming a differentiated AI company. To this end, we will transform our core businesses into AI based businesses to secure new growth drivers, offer AI services to deepen customer relations and employ AIX strategy to spread SK Telecom’s AI and digital transformation capabilities to other industries. [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] Now let me report on the consolidated financial results of the third quarter of 2022. [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] Consolidated revenue reported KRW 4,343.4 billion, up 3.0% or year-over-year and 1.2% Q-on-Q. [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] Operating income posted KRW 465.6 billion, up 18.5% year-on-year on the back of continuous market stabilization. It also grew 1.3% Q-on-Q mainly thanks to revenue growth supported by growing 5G subscribers. [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] Net income recorded KRW 245.6 billion, down 66.7% year-over-year and 4.9% Q-on-Q with a recognition of disposal losses of Hana Card card equity. [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] On a non-consolidated basis, revenue grew 3.1% year-over-year and 0.1% Q-on-Q to post KRW 3,122.6 billion. Operating income and net income reported KRW 388.7 billion and KRW 305.1 billion respectively. [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] Having reported on the financial highlights of Q3 2022, let me now move on to major achievements and strategic directions. [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] Having ranked #1 in the National Customer Satisfaction Index and the Korean Standard Service Quality Index, we went first again in the Korean Customer Satisfaction Index in October, thereby achieving Grand Slam in all three major customer satisfaction surveys in the Mobile Communication sector for 23 consecutive years. Thanks to strong customer support, the number of 5G subscribers reached KRW 12.47 million at the end of Q3, well on course to reach the annual target of 13 million. [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] The pay TV subscribers of SK Broadband reached 9.25 million as at the end of Q3. Content sales have seen a recovery trend, thanks to the solid growth of the pay TV subscriber base and new film releases on the back of transition to endemic. We expect that this growth trend will continue to be supported by diverse content offerings [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] Also TEAM Studio, our LED wall-based media content production studio that opened in June is actively expanding the media ecosystem based on hyper collaboration by creating a consortium with major virtual production companies in Korea. SK Telecom will lead the media content production paradigm by utilizing TEAM Studio. To this end, TEAM Studio will build intellectual property, VFX and XR related platforms which will lead the future digital content industry on top of SK Telecom’s ICT infrastructure such as 5G, AI and Cloud technologies [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] Moving on to our Data Center business, which received much attention in the market recently, growth of revenue and utilization rate is on track for Gasan and Siksa Data Centers. Preparations to open additional data centers in areas such as the Seoul Metropolitan Area and Busan are well underway as we continue to manage the internal and external circumstances well. [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] As the cloud market is going through restructuring centered on hyperscalers, we're focusing on MSP business, which can expand quickly the scale through hyper collaboration with global CSPs as well as edge cloud business that provides comprehensive packages that include MEC infrastructure and various solutions. [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] Launched as an open beta version, a growing AI service named A. (A dot) is improving its service quality through constant enhancement. In order to transform ‘A.’ into a daily digital made for customers, we are making continuous efforts including the development of a daily service package that combines a wide range of everyday services. [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] Celebrating the first anniversary in August, T universe has become a leading subscription service in Korea with more than 1.4 million MAU by offering diverse services and benefits in connection with customer’s lifestyles, including online and offline shopping, foods and beverages and digital services. Going forward, T universe aims to evolve as a subscription commerce platform by expanding product lineup and partnerships and enhancing customer convenience. [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] Ifland recorded 12.86 million cumulative downloads at the end of Q3. It introduced ifland Point Program to build a foundation for an economic system and opened ifland Studio where users can create avatar costumes to further expand the scope of production to lens and items in the future. Going forward, transactions using ifland points will be enabled as well. Moreover, in September, SK Telecom signed an MOU with e&, UAE’s #1 giant telecom company which marks the beginning of global expansion of ifland with the goal of launching metaverse services in 48 countries by the end of this year. [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] Connected Intelligence business including UAM, an integral part of future mobility is a business that SK Telecom is pursuing with a sense of responsibility for the future of society and humanity. We believe that UAM will be a game changer that offers innovative services to customer’s growth, upside to investors and convenient mobility services for society. [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] Finally for shareholder returns, the Board determined the third quarter EPS to be the same as Q1 and Q2 at KRW 831. [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] SK Telecom will accelerate transformation into AI company through active cooperation with an investment in technology companies, as in the case of equity investment in Konan Technology to secure core AI technologies and talent. In the process, we will do our best to achieve financial performance improvement and new business growth in order to maximize corporate value and shareholder value. [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] We ask for your continued support and encouragement. Thank you [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] We will now begin the Q&A session.