SKT Adds 1 Million 5G Subscribers in Q1... Operating Profit Jumps 15.5%

Sales of 4.2772 Trillion KRW · Operating Profit of 432.4 Billion KRW
Leading 5G-Centered MNO
Growth in Media and Enterprise

SK Telecom SKT Tower Exterior View

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] SK Telecom announced on the 10th that it posted consolidated sales of 4.2772 trillion KRW and operating profit of 432.4 billion KRW in the first quarter of 2022, representing increases of 4% and 15.5% respectively compared to the same period last year. Net profit decreased by 61.5% due to the exclusion of equity-method gains from SK Hynix following the corporate spin-off implemented in November last year.

This growth was driven by continued expansion in key business areas such as MNO and IPTV. SK Telecom, responsible for the wireless business, recorded standalone sales of 3.0774 trillion KRW and operating profit of 356.9 billion KRW, growing 3.2% and 16.2% respectively year-on-year. The number of 5G subscribers increased by more than 1 million.

SK Broadband, which handles the wired business, posted sales of 1.026 trillion KRW, up 6.1% from the previous year. Operating profit increased by 0.9% to 76.1 billion KRW. SK Broadband has ranked first in net IPTV subscriber additions for four consecutive quarters since the second quarter of last year.

This year, SK Telecom is driving growth centered on five major business groups. The subscription service ‘T Woosoo’ recently surpassed 1 million users. SK Telecom’s total subscription service gross merchandise volume (GMV) exceeded 130 billion KRW in the first quarter. The metaverse (extended virtual world) service ‘Ifland’ also achieved 1.35 million monthly active users (MAU) as of March. Discussions for global expansion with leading overseas telecom companies are underway.

The media business saw sales increase by 10.3% year-on-year. SK Stoa achieved sales of 89.5 billion KRW in the first quarter of this year. Enterprise business sales, centered on data centers and cloud services, also grew by 17.4%.

5G infrastructure advancement continues. In the first quarter, SK Telecom executed CAPEX (capital expenditure) of 279.4 billion KRW, a 27% increase compared to the same period last year. Having invested about 3 trillion KRW annually in CAPEX, SK Telecom plans to maintain a similar scale of capital investment this year.

Kim Jin-won, SK Telecom’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), stated, “In the first quarter of this year, major business areas such as MNO, media, and enterprise all showed balanced growth,” adding, “We will make this year one of growth and innovation centered on the five major business groups.”