SK Telecom is expected to create an AI marketplace that buys and sells apps and services created by applying `Who`, an AI platform. SK Telecom will spread its AI platform at the center and become a leading company in the era of the 4th industrial revolution combined with the 5G ecosystem by utilizing the characteristics of AI that can be used for people`s whole life. The project is reportedly led by Park Jung-ho, president of SK Telecom.

According to the industry on January 17, SK Telecom plans to use `Who` as an open platform for external developers to make various services using its AI platform. At the same time, the company plans to open `Who Mall (tentative name)`, an AI marketplace where companies and ordinary users can freely buy and sell services created using `Who` during the first half or at the latest by June, . Google Play and One Store are features of the same marketplace concept, selling `who` AI services exclusively.

SK Telecom has already opened the AI platform since last year. It is one of the strategies to secure leadership in the AI platform war. In September last year, SK Telecom Service Platform Division Manager Lee Sang-ho said, "We plan to open `Who` as an open platform so that outside developers can utilize it."

Since early this year, SK Telecom has changed its strategy to expand into specialized malls, rather than just opening "Nugu". SK Telecom official said, "We will operate `who` as an open platform and let `B2B` and `B2C` customers contact the services created by SMEs and start-up developers using `Nugu` is based on the judgment that it is in accord with the purpose of doing."

The move of SK Telecom seems to have affected the will of Park Jung-ho. Park has emphasized the ecosystem expansion of 5G mobile communication (5G) through SK Telecom. The industry is expected to be able to implement more diverse AI services through the fast and stable 5G network in the fourth industrial revolution era. Park said in a recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2018 in Las Vegas, USA, that 5G will bring explosive convergence between offline and mobile, as the financial transaction service is wireless and AI is converged. SK Telecom also created an AI Research Center at the end of last year.

SK Telecom plans to spread the AI platform quickly by using the `Who` users already secured. SK Telecom`s AI speaker `Who` `and voice recognition navigation` T map X Who `cumulative users reached 400,000 and 8 million, respectively, as of the end of last year.

By Jong Ye Rin yeslin@


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