Digital Life Bank
SK Telecom announced in late Aug. that it will launch an Internet bank with Interpark, IBK, NH Investment Securities, NHN Entertainment, SK Telecom, GS Home Shopping, and Welcome Savings Bank. The company is planning to generate profits through more affordable loans for ordinary households and small business owners. To conquer the loan market, the company will make good use of big data accumulated via its IT services. The company officially made public partners for its Internet bank consortium.
The largest wireless telecoms company in Korea said that the bank will be a “Digital Life Bank” that can make things easier for customers in all aspects of their lives. That is to say, its services will cover all activities involving around spending and saving money. The Internet bank is expected to have an innovative business model based on databases built by the participating companies.
For example, customers of all of the participating companies number about 30 million and overlap with nearly all financial customers in Korea. So the new bank will develop a wide variety of financial products and change current supplier-oriented services and product lineups into consumer-oriented ones. In addition, the cyber bank will absorb and optimize various business power tools from each participating company, quickly stabilize its business models, and suggest new financial solutions.
SK Telecom has expanded its big data business based on its wireless mobile service subscribers, which number about 28 million. In March, SK Telecom announced a big data platform, named “T-Hadoop,” based on mobile traffic management expertise at the Mobile World Congress 2015 held in Spain. T-Hadoop can flexibly expand servers in accordance with the volume of data to be analyzed. Another axle of its big data business is “Geo Vision,” which analyzes commercial areas based on location. Geo Vision analyzes foot traffic and commercial areas as well as sales by time, gender, and age based on mobile telecommunication services and card use information. This kind of information comes in handy in financial services, as it can accurately evaluate the level of customer credit.