SK Telecom Q2 Earnings Announcement
Revenue 4.4 Trillion KRW · Operating Profit 537.5 Billion KRW
Focusing on Securing AI Competitiveness in the Second Half
SK Telecom's operating profit for the second quarter of this year recorded 537.5 billion KRW, a 16% increase compared to the same period last year.
SKT announced on the 6th that its consolidated sales for the second quarter of this year were 4.4224 trillion KRW, operating profit was 537.5 billion KRW, and net profit was 350.2 billion KRW.
Sales and operating profit increased by 2.7% and 16.0%, respectively, compared to the same period last year, thanks to the performance growth of wired and wireless businesses and major affiliates.
Enterprise business sales grew 11% year-on-year to 434.2 billion KRW, driven by increased data center utilization rates and cloud order growth in the second quarter. In particular, the data center business achieved a 20.5% sales growth compared to the same period last year due to continuous increases in utilization rates.
On a separate basis, sales were 3.1915 trillion KRW, and operating profit and net profit were 450.4 billion KRW and 280.3 billion KRW, respectively.
In the second half of the year, the strategy is to focus on building and securing competitiveness in the AI value chain, including AI data centers and AI services. Plans are in place to target not only the domestic but also the overseas AI data center markets.
Recently, SKT invested 200 million USD in the US AI data center integrated solution center SGH, and the strategy is to add global partnerships to the group's business capabilities, such as data center management know-how and immersion cooling technology.
In the mobile business, as of the end of June, the number of 5G subscribers reached 16.23 million, surpassing 70% of total customers. Paid broadcasting subscribers reached 9.6 million, and high-speed internet subscribers reached 7.05 million.
Yu Young-sang, CEO of SK Telecom, is speaking at the CEO press briefing during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024. Photo by Joint Press Corps
In the enterprise sector, the Internet of Things (IoT) business recorded a 29% increase in sales compared to the same period last year, and the cloud business grew 28% year-on-year excluding one-time effects.
The AI personal assistant service A. (A-dot) had 4.55 million subscribers as of the end of June, showing a continuous increase from about 3.2 million at the end of last year. To strengthen service competitiveness, SKT is jointly developing a generative AI search engine optimized for Korean with Perplexity, a generative AI search specialist company.
Kim Yang-seop, SKT CFO, said, "We will maximize corporate value and shareholder returns through the optimal balance among growth investment, financial structure improvement, and shareholder returns."
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