SK Telecom CEO Ryu Young-sang, KT CEO Kim Young Shub, and LG Uplus president Hong Bum-sik (Image courtesy of SK Telecom, KT, and LG U+)
SEOUL, Jan. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — In their New Year’s messages, chief executives of South Korea’s three major telecommunications companies and leading platform and gaming firms highlighted plans to expand artificial intelligence operations and boost revenue generation in 2025.
The heads of the telecom companies unanimously identified AI achievements as their primary objective for the coming year. Having completed preparatory work to transform into AI-specialized companies, they now aim to deliver concrete results in both the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sectors.
SK Telecom CEO Ryu Young-sang expressed optimism about new opportunities emerging from AI market growth and its integration with telecommunications, despite economic uncertainties. He committed to strengthening the company’s position as a global AI competitor. SK Telecom spent the previous year developing its AI pyramid strategy, laying the groundwork for its transformation into an AI company.
“We must generate tangible results in AI,” Ryu stated, announcing plans to translate AI initiatives into substantial revenue growth by 2025. The company will focus on establishing synergies among SK Telecom, SK Broadband, and SKC&C for B2B AI operations, while advancing B2C AI services through A. and the global AI agent Aster. Additionally, SK Telecom will concentrate on building an ‘AI Infrastructure Super Highway’ centered on three pillars: AI data centers, GPU cloud services (GPUaaS), and edge AI.
KT CEO Kim Young Shub announced during a town hall meeting that the company’s primary goal is to achieve strong results in B2B operations through collaboration with Microsoft. Kim previously revealed plans to develop a Korean AI model based on GPT-4 in the first half of the year, along with industry-specific models for public and financial sectors using the Phi 3.5 small language model. The partnership with Microsoft targets cumulative sales of 4.6 trillion won over five years, with 269 billion won projected for this year.
LG Uplus’s newly appointed president Hong Bum-sik emphasized building an AI transformation ecosystem to secure structural competitiveness. Hong stressed the importance of providing hyper-personalized value to customers through AI proliferation while maintaining strength in core telecommunications operations.
Platform companies Naver and Kakao pledged to leverage AI for a turnaround after facing various challenges last year. Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon discussed plans to expand services in Japan, the United States, Europe, and Saudi Arabia, while emphasizing comprehensive AI integration across their services in 2025.
The gaming industry, facing restructuring challenges, aims to rebound through improved profitability and content competitiveness. Industry leaders, including Netmarble and Coway Chairman Bang Jun-hyuk and NC Soft co-CEOs Kim Taek-jin and Park Byung-moo, emphasized the need for venture spirit and rigorous efforts for growth.
NHN CEO Jung Woo-jin set “strengthening fundamentals” and “achieving results in gaming operations” as key objectives, announcing plans to reinforce Hangame’s leadership in web board games and establish a global presence through new titles including Darkest Days and Abyssdia.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
