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| SK Telecom CEO Ha Sung-min, left, shakes hands with NHN CEO Kim Sang-hun after they signed a memorandum of understanding at the mobile carrier's T-Tower at Euljiro, Seoul, Monday. / Courtesy of SKT |
By Cho Mu-hyun
NHN, the search giant that manages Naver, has partnered with mobile carrier SK Telecom with the goal of finding new revenue channels.
Executives of both firms met Monday and have agreed to cooperate in investing in the big data (storing data information online rather than on hardware), creating wired and wireless converged services and philanthropy work.
The ultimate goal was to share their competitiveness and develop new consumer services, according to the two. It is a joint effort to compete with global players such as Apple and Google whose influences continue to rise in the market.
"I expect Naver to provide new services that are to the niche of consumers which involved sophisticated search using wired and wireless searches thanks to cooperation in big data with SK Telecom," said NHN CEO Kim Sang-hun. "Backed by the cooperation and results from the potential-rich big data sector, we will create a new market in the global stage in the future."
NHN and SK Telecom will form a project group starting December aimed to expand their big data businesses. They predict that the market for the rising trend will be worth $34 billion by next year.
The partners will create more corporate consulting, solution and smart home services using their combined network infrastructures and know-hows.
The two are reviewing matters to combine NHN's map service and SK Telecom's analysis on commercial areas to help merchants run their businesses better.
They also plan to work together in research and development on yet unspecified project.
"Through the collaboration of both companies, we will unearth innovative, future businesses and lead the domestic IT ecosystem," said SK Telecom CEO Ha Sung-min. "We hope our partnership becomes representative on a one that helps the public good and create good results."
The alliance also signals a symbolic sign for a ceasefire between broadband user and provider in recent disputes.
Carriers like SK Telecom and content makers such as NHN have been at loggerheads due to the rise of data-intensive long-term evolution networks that raised the issue of network neutrality: whether network use by the latter should require additional fees to the former.
Despite the controversy, various companies in the technology industry has been openly cooperating more to diversify their portfolio: KT has aligned itself with Samsung Electronics to strengthen its television contents. LG Uplus have recently launched Google TV, the first local launch of the Internet giants' content driven service.
"There will be a continuous and more noticeable co-work from different businesses in the technological business due to rise of faster networks," said an industry official.
