SKB, high growth T commerce market in boom… KTH and leader competition to speed up
Kim Ji Young | kjy@ | 2017-12-05 10:06:32
[Digital Times, Kim Ji-young] It is expected to be in the lead with KTH, the first T-commerce provider as SK Broadband enters into the T-commerce business, which is the growth market.
According to the industry on December 4, SK Broadband is expanding its T-commerce business with its subsidiary SK Broadband. It is due to the growth potential that SK Broadband will enter T-commerce until it establishes its subsidiary. The T-commerce market is growing at an annual average rate of 252% on a transaction basis. In 2014, it was KRW 80 billion in 2014, but it increased to KRW 253.4 billion in 2015. Last year, the billing amount reached 997.7billion, reaching KRW 1 trillion. According to the industry, the domestic T-commerce market is expected to expand to KRW 1.8 trillion this year.
Accordingly, SK Broadband will be able to provide T-commerce services to Broadband users through the establishment of SK Stoa. The company has been providing T-commerce channels `Btv Shopping` in 12 different platforms including cable broadcasting, IPTV, and satellite broadcasting since 2015, but it has been limited in expanding its customers because it cannot broadcast on Btv. It is because of the direct use channel regulation that the company cannot broadcast the program that the IPTV service company produced directly. B Shopping has moved away from this regulation and secured 4 million subscribers of SK Broadband`s Btv as potential customers. The number of subscribers of SK Broadband is 4,047,444, making it the second largest player in the pay-TV industry.
As we can see, competition with KTH, which is the number one player in the T-commerce market, is expected to become visible. SK Broadband is aiming to become SK Telecom`s top-tier T-commerce platform and to become a media-based distribution channel within SK Group by achieving sales of KRW 500 billion by 2021. This is well beyond the current sales of KTH`s K-Shopping, which is the number one player.
KTH recorded sales of KRW 160.5 billion in 2015 and KRW 198.7 billion in sales in 2016, marking the highest sales for the second consecutive year. KTH opened in Korea as the first independent channel-type T-commerce service in 2012, and the broadcasting platform will be launched in 2012 with about 21 million households including SK Broadband, CJ Hello, C & M.
Meanwhile, Investment in technology for differentiation such as AI and Big Data is expected to continue. SK Broadband will invest KRW 50 billion by 2020 to expand its customized recommendation service using Big Data analysis and recommendation algorithms and expand customized shopping services. In addition, the company plans to introduce a voice search service in connection with AI technology and a simple payment by remote control of TV-based pay TV technology. KTH also acquired 19 patents related to T-commerce technology, some of which are already applied to services, and it is a strategy to upgrade them. For example, it provides a customized shopping service that uses a set-top box ID-based big data to analyze a viewer`s taste, a viewing pattern, a purchase history, etc. to recommend a product suited to a viewer`s characteristic and transmit a broadcast of another product to each household. K shopping is conducting interactive TV shopping using Kigijin with KT Artificial Intelligence TV Kigajini.
A related industry stated, "The growth of the T-commerce market will allow the market to grow faster if the large-scale operators are active. However, the T-commerce broadcasting environment will not be easy to differentiate, so competition among carriers will be intense."
By Kim Ji Young kjy@
[ copyright ⓒ The Digitaltimes ]
According to the industry on December 4, SK Broadband is expanding its T-commerce business with its subsidiary SK Broadband. It is due to the growth potential that SK Broadband will enter T-commerce until it establishes its subsidiary. The T-commerce market is growing at an annual average rate of 252% on a transaction basis. In 2014, it was KRW 80 billion in 2014, but it increased to KRW 253.4 billion in 2015. Last year, the billing amount reached 997.7billion, reaching KRW 1 trillion. According to the industry, the domestic T-commerce market is expected to expand to KRW 1.8 trillion this year.
Accordingly, SK Broadband will be able to provide T-commerce services to Broadband users through the establishment of SK Stoa. The company has been providing T-commerce channels `Btv Shopping` in 12 different platforms including cable broadcasting, IPTV, and satellite broadcasting since 2015, but it has been limited in expanding its customers because it cannot broadcast on Btv. It is because of the direct use channel regulation that the company cannot broadcast the program that the IPTV service company produced directly. B Shopping has moved away from this regulation and secured 4 million subscribers of SK Broadband`s Btv as potential customers. The number of subscribers of SK Broadband is 4,047,444, making it the second largest player in the pay-TV industry.
As we can see, competition with KTH, which is the number one player in the T-commerce market, is expected to become visible. SK Broadband is aiming to become SK Telecom`s top-tier T-commerce platform and to become a media-based distribution channel within SK Group by achieving sales of KRW 500 billion by 2021. This is well beyond the current sales of KTH`s K-Shopping, which is the number one player.
KTH recorded sales of KRW 160.5 billion in 2015 and KRW 198.7 billion in sales in 2016, marking the highest sales for the second consecutive year. KTH opened in Korea as the first independent channel-type T-commerce service in 2012, and the broadcasting platform will be launched in 2012 with about 21 million households including SK Broadband, CJ Hello, C & M.
Meanwhile, Investment in technology for differentiation such as AI and Big Data is expected to continue. SK Broadband will invest KRW 50 billion by 2020 to expand its customized recommendation service using Big Data analysis and recommendation algorithms and expand customized shopping services. In addition, the company plans to introduce a voice search service in connection with AI technology and a simple payment by remote control of TV-based pay TV technology. KTH also acquired 19 patents related to T-commerce technology, some of which are already applied to services, and it is a strategy to upgrade them. For example, it provides a customized shopping service that uses a set-top box ID-based big data to analyze a viewer`s taste, a viewing pattern, a purchase history, etc. to recommend a product suited to a viewer`s characteristic and transmit a broadcast of another product to each household. K shopping is conducting interactive TV shopping using Kigijin with KT Artificial Intelligence TV Kigajini.
A related industry stated, "The growth of the T-commerce market will allow the market to grow faster if the large-scale operators are active. However, the T-commerce broadcasting environment will not be easy to differentiate, so competition among carriers will be intense."
By Kim Ji Young kjy@