Especially, SK Telecom garnered some 10,000 subscribers daily from May 20 to 22 through the marketing activities including “Good Family Cut Rate” and 3D printings of phone protectors for new subscribers. (image: xoxoryan/flickr)
SEOUL, May 30 (Korea Bizwire) – A week after the three major mobile carriers resumed their businesses after suspensions, SK Telecom swept the number portability market with aggressive marketing.
According to the industry, from May 20 to 28, SK Telecom marked a net increase of 42,990 subscribers while KT and LG Uplus recorded a net decrease of 36,172 subscribers and 6,818 subscribers respectively.
Especially, SK Telecom garnered some 10,000 subscribers daily from May 20 to 22 through the marketing activities including “Good Family Cut Rate” and 3D printings of phone protectors for new subscribers. Meanwhile, during the same period, KT and LG Uplus lost some 5,000 subscribers a day. After the period, SK Telecom steadily induced more than 2,000 subscribers daily.
After they reopened the business on May 20, KT lost the most subscribers. On May 20, some 10,000 subscribers left KT and 2,000 to 7,000 subscribers fled from KT daily afterward.
The reason why SK Telecom poured out such aggressive marketing activities upon resuming its business is that KT, the last sole operator before all three resumed their businesses, gained some 230,000 subscribers with more than 10,000 net increases of subscribers daily. While SK Telecom was the only operator, it only secured some 6,000 subscribers daily.
The number of number portability customers during the period surpassed 65,000 daily, almost three times higher than government’s standard of ”excessive” competition at 24,000.
An industry official said, “The market is overheating after SK Telecom deployed the aggressive marketing to recover the loss during the business suspension period as it was the poorest player during the period. As more than 60,000 subscribers have changed their mobile carriers daily, the subsidy competition becomes fierce as much.”
“In response to SK’s marketing activities, KT and LG Uplus are also taking actions actively, but they seem to be short of bullets,” he added.
However, SK Telecom denied the payment of high subsidies to gain more subscribers. An SK Telecom official said, “Our net increase in subscribers came from the potential subscribers who waited during the suspension and came in all at once and our efforts to reinforce the competiveness like the family discount rate promotion. It is a wild guess that we gained the subscribers by pouring in subsidies.”
Written by John Choi (johnchoi@koreabizwire.com)
Technology (Follow us @Technews_Korea)
