Mobile in Korea

  The customer-centric service & price scheme has become very important in mobile industy of Korea. Since late last year, mobile operators have released various options about price discount in Korea. Recently, SK Telecom released a new discount option which provides 50% discount on calls among members of family. There is no additional chare for getting the discount benefit. Subscribers just submit a certificate which has all family members' names in order to get the discount benefit. Members of family, who want to get the benefit, must subscribe the mobile service of SK Telecom. If husband uses a service of SK Telecom and wife uses a service of KTF, the discount is not applied to calls between them.

  Yesterday, SK Telecom announced that this discount option attracted 0.5mil subscribers since the option was released in 1st April. It is very surprising that 0.5mil subscribers submit a certificate because a subscriber can submit the certificate directly through off-line customer centers, not on-line or phone-call to customer center.

  Although this discount option hinders the revenue growth of mobile operator, I assume that the options become strong weapons for customer retention. Because Korean market is saturated, the retention is the most important baseline for additional growth.