Some Korean telecom and Internet companies are trying to find new businesses and services that tie into their core business. Chang Kim of Web 2.0 Asia recently profiled a housekeeping and childcare service started by the Korean e-commerce site Interpark.
The JoongAng Daily found that Korean telecom companies are taking on a similar strategy with companies like broadband Internet provider LG Dacom opening a wedding consulting business:
As of last year, Korea had a 93.6 percent handset penetration rate. Eighty percent of the country had access to high-speed Internet. Those figures left telecom operators little room to grow traditional service areas. So they’re going non-traditional.
KT is also looking to use their Internet protocol television (IPTV) service MegaPass TV to move into e-commerce with a new test service:
Late last year, KT exchanged a memorandum of understanding on IPTV content with broadcaster MBC for the provision of the Clear Skin service. From late next week it will begin a test service on 500 households.
Under KT’s Clear Skin, the world’s first commercialized service of its kind, viewers can click on a certain person or object onscreen on a real time basis with the remote control. Related information will immediately appear on the screen for viewers to shop for the items on TV (TV commerce).
