KT aims to lower its dependence on telecommunications

KT CEO Ku Hyeon-mo speaks at a press conference during the MWC 2022 held in Barcelona on Wednesday. [KT]

KT CEO Ku Hyeon-mo vowed to develop more new businesses to reduce exposure to telecommunications.

He aims to make investments and sign agreements related to artificial intelligence, cloud computing and media. Ku made the comments Wednesday during MWC 2022 in Barcelona.

He said the company will continue to sharpen its focus on incorporating high technology into digital services, especially for corporate clients and the government.

KT largely refers to these businesses as "Digico" units, as opposed to its previous model based on network subscriptions, and sees them driving growth.

"My top priority was to extend the range of fields where KT can be up and running when I was appointed CEO two years ago," Ku said during a press conference at the trade show.

"Back then, KT's businesses were centered around network subscriptions for consumers, but as a result, revenues flattened for 15 years," he said.

Ku announced the transition two years ago, citing a growing number of corporations interested in digitizing their internal systems.

Cloud computing was touted as a main offering to seize the new target consumer.
KT now claims a 41 percent market share in the local internet data center business, and the share goes up to 70 percent when limiting the client base to those in the finance and public corporations, according to Ku.

The company announced last month that it will spin off its cloud business and call it KT Cloud, with the aim of further growing the business.

In the same month, the company invested 130 billion won ($109 million) in MegazoneCloud, a local cloud service start-up.

Another area of focus is to create original content programming through KT Studio Genie and develop synergies with KT's related services, like Olleh TV, Seezn, Skylife and Storywiz, a webtoon and web novel platform.

"We plan to produce 15 series and release 9 of them this year," said Yoon Kyung-lim, head of group transformation division at KT. He said the company aims to get them on popular streaming services like Netflix.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]