KT SK LG Internet Subscription Comparison Sites See Surge in Visitors After Prize Notification System Implementation... What’s the Reason?

Since June 1, 2019, a gift regulation called the ‘Prize Announcement System’ has been applied to wired products such as Internet and IPTV. This is to ensure that there is no difference in the amount of gifts given to consumers when subscribing to the Internet.

As a result, all sales points can only support customers (consumers) with gift amounts set by the Korea Communications Commission (hereinafter ‘KCC’) and the three telecom companies, ranging from a minimum of -15% to a maximum of +15%.

If a sales point violates this, they may face penalties of over 1 million KRW and even suspension of business, so compliance with the Prize Announcement System guidelines is mandatory.

Currently, the maximum gift amount payable by each telecom company is 460,000 KRW for SK Broadband and LG Uplus, and up to 430,000 KRW for KT Olleh. Penalties apply if these amounts are exceeded.

Meanwhile, since the implementation of the Prize Announcement System, consumers have been known to seek Internet subscription routes through Internet comparison sites.

The main reason is the ‘gift’. Although the gift amounts have generally decreased after the system’s implementation, Internet comparison sites provide gifts averaging more than 100,000 KRW higher than telecom customer centers, making them popular among younger consumers.

Also, while telecom customer centers are professional in guiding their own products, they often lack knowledge about other companies’ products, making it difficult to compare products and rates by telecom company. In contrast, Internet comparison sites handle all telecom products and recommend products suitable for the consumer’s usage environment.

Regarding gifts, telecom customer centers only provide gift certificates, whereas Internet comparison sites offer both gift certificates and cash, with a higher proportion of cash, leading to a steady increase in consumers visiting Internet comparison sites.

However, since Internet comparison sites are operated by individuals or corporations, selecting the right company is important. The importance of company selection can be seen from incidents such as the personal information leak on the Ppomppu site and the gift fraud cases at new sales points.

According to a representative of the Internet comparison site ‘Penguin Tongsin’, which has recently gained popularity with over 3,000 daily visitors, “Penguin Tongsin operates an official Naver Internet subscription cafe with over 150,000 members, and it is convenient to use without a separate membership registration process if you have a Naver ID.” They added, “Since the implementation of the Prize Announcement System, we provide gifts only up to the maximum guideline and pay cash gifts on the installation day for customer convenience.”

Penguin Tongsin is currently an online Internet comparison site visited by more than 3,000 people daily and over 8.8 million cumulatively, and is known to have high reliability with over 800 cumulative installation reviews.