South Korea’s top three mobile carriers will team up with Naver, the country’s leading Internet service provider, to launch a unified app store, company officials said Thursday. (Image : Pixabay)
SEOUL, April 14 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s top three mobile carriers will team up with Naver, the country’s leading Internet service provider, to launch a unified app store, company officials said Thursday.
SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. already have a combined app retail channel: One Store.
A subsidiary of SK Telecom, which manages One Store, has agreed with Naver to consolidate their app services.
The new app market scheduled to open in June will use the single brand One Store and it will strengthen its connection with Naver’s other existing services, including Naver Pay, as well.’
“Both of the companies make much of the co-prosperity with startups and small-and medium-sized developers,” Kim Sang-hun, CEO of Naver said.
He added Naver will offer 10 billion won (US$8.6 million) in financial assistance over the next three years for the co-prosperity program.
Lee Jae-hwan, head of One Store, expects more synergy from the planned joint venture with Naver.
“Since the three mobile phone service firms launched the unified app store last year, the number of downloads have increased 2.4 times, registered applications 1.8 times, and transaction volume 1.5 times,” Lee said.
(Yonhap)
