June 2016, 5 Years Ago
Establishment of Joint Venture by 3 Major Telecoms and Naver
Commission Reduced to 20%
500 Million Content Downloads
[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] “I studied coding alone and developed a game just for fun. The reason I registered it on One Store was that, unlike other app markets, it had no developer registration fee.” (One Store’s youngest game app developer, Oh Yun-seo, then 15 years old, attending Suwon Cheoncheon Middle School)
One Store, an app market that pursues activation of the app ecosystem by lowering commissions charged to developers, celebrated its 5th anniversary on the 2nd.
One Store was launched in June 2016 by Korea’s three major telecom companies and Naver. In July 2018, to promote coexistence with developers, it implemented a groundbreaking policy that reduced the app market commission, traditionally set at 30%, to 20%, and further lowered it to 5% when using its own payment system. In December of the same year, it surpassed Apple App Store in game transaction volume, establishing itself as the second-largest app market in Korea.
One Store’s visible achievements soon led to investment attraction. In 2019, One Store secured investments worth 100 billion KRW from external investors, accelerating its growth. After implementing the commission reduction policy, One Store achieved 10 consecutive quarters of growth until 2020 and succeeded in turning its first annual profit since establishment last year. Additionally, One Store was recognized for its contribution to fostering coexistence in the domestic mobile app distribution market by receiving the Minister of Science and ICT Award at the 15th Korea Internet Awards at the end of last year.
One Store also disclosed key performance indicators achieved over the past five years. Approximately 630,000 products including games, apps, digital content, and shopping items are registered on One Store, and it is estimated that about 49.92 million people have purchased at least one product from One Store to date. The monthly active users (MAU) of One Store exceed approximately 15.4 million, and the total number of content downloads to date reaches about 500 million.
Over the past five years, One Store has conducted a total of 32,595 promotions. Events ranged from providing game cash and discount coupons to selling gaming devices. One Store users received an average annual discount benefit of 67,300 KRW per person (as of 2020) through various events including discounts from the three telecom companies.
One Store’s coexistence policy has greatly contributed to industry growth. Since the commission reduction in July 2018, the total commission savings for developers amount to approximately 100 billion KRW, and the number of apps benefiting from commission reductions for small and medium enterprises, implemented since October last year, has reached about 21,000. By providing services that satisfy both users and developers and strengthening its foundation, One Store raised its domestic app market share to 18.4% as of August last year based on Mobile Index, setting a record high.
Major blockbuster games played a significant role in One Store’s growth. The game that maintained the number one sales position the longest on One Store was ‘Mu Origin,’ holding the throne for a total of 241 days (non-consecutive). The game with the highest number of downloads was ‘Friends Pop,’ and games that ranked number one in sales on their release day included ‘Samgukji M,’ ‘Ragnarok Origin,’ ‘King of Fighters Allstar,’ and ‘Chaos Mobile.’
Lee Jae-hwan, CEO of One Store, said, “I sincerely thank the users and developers who have loved One Store over the past five years. The reason One Store has grown into Korea’s representative app market lies in the corporate philosophy of ‘growth through coexistence.’ We will continue to grow together with the industry and strive to provide greater benefits to users.”
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
