SK Telecom was ranked at the top with 1,677.7 billion won, followed by LG Uplus (1,084.7 billion won) and KT (693.1 billion won).(image:SK Telecom)
SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Korea Bizwire) – Korea’s mobile telecom service operators have for years spent fortunes on marketing to attract more subscribers. A parliamentary investigation revealed that the three service providers including SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus have poured in 3.5 trillion won in advertising and other promotions almost for the past five years.
According to Congresswoman Ryu Jo-yeong (New Frontier Party) on October 21 based on data submitted by mobile telecom companies to the Financial Supervisory Service, the volume of money spent on advertising and promotion from January 2010 to June this year was 3,455.5 billion won. Of this, the advertising spending alone was 841.1 billion won in 2013, up 22.5 percent from 686.7 billion won in 2010.
By service provider, SK Telecom was ranked at the top with 1,677.7 billion won, followed by LG Uplus (1,084.7 billion won) and KT (693.1 billion won). KT, as part of a company-wide belt-tightening measure, cut back on advertising spending by 30 billion won in 2012 but saw the amount rebound to the previous year’s level in the following year.
According to data provided by the Korea Broadcasting Advertising Corp., all the three mobile telecom operators were ranked within the top-ten list of advertisers spending most on network channel commercials. As late as 2010, SK Telecom and KT were listed No. 1 and No. 2, with LG Uplus ranked far below at the 9th place. Beginning last year, however, the three firms have been ranked within the top-five advertiser list.
By Sean Chung (schung10@koreabizwire.com)
