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SEOUL, Nov. 8 (Yonhap) — SK Telecom Co., South Korea’s largest mobile service provider, announced Wednesday that its third-quarter net profit rose by 25.5 percent year-on-year due to the expansion of its mobile and enterprise businesses.
Net income was reported at 308.2 billion won (US$236.3 million) on a consolidated basis in the July-September period, compared to 245.6 billion won in the same period in 2019, according to SK Telecom’s regulatory filing.
Operating profit increased 7 percent year-on-year to 498 billion won, while sales rose 1.4 percent to 4.4 trillion won.
The earnings were higher than market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts was 291.2 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.
The corporate logo of SK Telecom Co. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
SK Telecom attributed the strong performance to the growth of its mobile communication and enterprise divisions.
Revenue from the company’s core telecom business increased 0.8 percent year-on-year to 3.1 trillion won, as the number of fifth-generation network service subscribers continued to grow.
The number of 5G subscriptions reached 15.1 million in the third quarter, compared to 12.5 million in the same quarter last year.
SK Telecom’s enterprise unit saw sales climb 5.8 percent year-on-year to 401 billion won in the third quarter, driven by strong demand for its data center and cloud services.
Sales from data centers jumped 32.5 percent year-on-year to 53.4 billion won due to the increased operation rate of a new data center, while cloud sales soared 38.7 percent to 36.2 billion won, largely due to recurring sales from its managed service provider business.
SKT’s subsidiary SK Broadband Co. also saw sales rise 2.4 percent to 1.04 trillion won as a result of strong demand for its IPTV service.
The number of SKB’s IPTV subscribers stood at 9.5 million as of the end of September, up from 9.3 million a year ago.
SKT said it will continue to develop its artificial intelligence business, noting its AI chip arm, Sapeon Inc., will launch a next-generation AI inference chip X330 later this year, and its Global AI Platform Corp. in the U.S. will release a platform tailored to large language models for telecommunication companies next year.
Metaverse platform ifland has also gained half of its 4.2 million monthly active users from overseas, the company added.
“With our AI pyramid strategy, we will work to become a global AI company and maximize shareholders’ value,” Kim Jin-won, SKT’s chief financial officer, said.
In September, SKT announced its plan to triple its investment in AI and generate 25 trillion won of sales by 2028 by creating a comprehensive AI business model.
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