South Korean 3G Race Hots Up

The number of South Korean mobile users finished just short of 45m at the end of June, with a total of 44.98m. The market remains highly stratified with SK Telecom (SKT) the clear market leader. At the end of June, it had 22.74m customers and 50.6% market share, up 0.1pp year on year. It has gained the highest figure for monthly net additions every month since October 2006, a 21-month run. Moreover, in absolute terms it has consolidated its lead over second-placed KT Freetel (KTF), increasing the gap from 7.85m at the end of June 2007 to 8.58m a year later.

KTF finished June with 14.17m customers, or 31.5% of the total market. This is a 0.4pp year-on-year fall. Its lead over third-placed LG Telecom (LGT) increased slightly year on year, from 6.06m to 6.09m. However, LGT managed to improve its market share by 0.3pp to 17.9%, finishing the month on 8.07m.

In contrast to the stability of the market as a whole, the South Korean 3G market is highly competitive.

Despite having a three-year head-start, SKT saw its W-CDMA base overtaken by KTF just three months after the latter launched 3G in January 2007, and KTF has held onto its lead ever since.

However, SKT has closed the gap considerably in recent months, from a high of 645k at the end of August 2007, to 515k at the end of 2007, to 134k at the end of June 2008. June saw it extend its run of market-leading figures for monthly 3G net additions to nine. In total, it had 6.18m 3G customers compared to 6.32m for KTF. LGT, meanwhile, reached around 0.4m having launched services in September 2007.

In total, there were 12.89m 3G handsets at the end of June, up from 1.53m a year earlier. This represents an annual growth rate of 743.9%, compared to a total market growth rate of 6.3%. Monthly growth has gradually slowed but remains in double digits, with a June figure of 11.4%.

Posted to the site on 23rd July 2008