SK Telecom reported revenue of KRW 4.277 trillion (+4 percent), operating income of KRW 432.4 billion (+15.5 percent), and net income of KRW 220.3 billion (–61.5 percent), in the first quarter of 2022.
SK Telecom has strengthened its leadership in the mobile telecommunications market by adding over 1 million 5G subscribers in South Korea. SK Telecom did not reveal the increase in mobile ARPU after adding 5G to its business.
SK Broadband’s revenue increased by 6.1 percent to KRW 1.026 trillion, while its operating income rose by 0.9 percent to KRW 76.1 billion. It achieved the highest net additions of cumulative IPTV subscribers in the market for four consecutive quarters since the second quarter of 2021.
SK Telecom is driving growth centered around five key business groups. The company’s subscription service T Universe recently surpassed 1 million subscribers. SKT’s subscription services generated a combined total of KRW 130 billion of gross merchandise volume (GMV) in the first quarter.
SKT’s metaverse service Ifland has reached 1.35 million monthly active users (MAU) as of March 2022 and is on track to accelerate growth by developing new opportunities in the overseas markets through cooperation with global telecommunications companies.
The media business is growing at a rapid pace, with its revenue increasing by 10.3 percent compared to the same period last year. SK Stoa posted revenue of KRW 89.5 billion in the first quarter, solidifying its status as the largest T-commerce company in Korea in terms of revenue.
The revenue of the company’s enterprise business centered on data center and cloud services increased by 17.4 percent.
Total capital expenditure of SK Telecom and SK Broadband increased by 27 percent to KRW 279.4 billion. SK Telecom and SK Broadband will maintain annual Capex of over KRW 3 trillion this year. SKT and SK Broadband maintained annual capital expenditure of over KRW 3 trillion for four consecutive years in the past.
“In the first quarter of 2022, we achieved even growth in our main business areas including MNO, media and enterprise” said Kim Jin-won, CFO of SKT. “We will drive business growth and innovations in our five key business groups this year.”
