The operator has also set up a “collaborative innovation center” to provide support for application start-ups, offering developers up to 50 million won in start-up capital to create apps for the platform.
“SK Telecom has developed over 5 million content applications since it opened [internet service] Nate in 2001. Yet due to the lack of scalability, they could not be expanded in the domestic market, let alone the global arena,” SK Telecom CEO Jung Man-Won said.
It will focus on seven areas – LBS, commerce, messaging, content distribution, social networking, B2B and common platforms such as mobile advertising and wireless personal area networks.
SK Telecom's previous attempts to expand internationally have failed. Its US mobile business, Helio, racked up a stream of losses before it was sold off in 2008, and the company withdrew from the Chinese market last year.
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