Three telecommunications companies and Naver allied forces to raise K-app market’One Store’… Will it be against Google?

Input 2021.03.03 09:34 | Revision 2021.03.03 09:57

KT and LG Uplus also invested 26 billion won to secure a stake in One Store
“A fight worth trying with Google Play ahead of in-app payment application”

The three communications companies and the Naver Allied Forces joined hands to foster the native app market’One Store’. Recently, the movement of pushing One Store to Google Play (Google’s App Market), which is predicting the application of its own payment system’in-app payment’ to Google Play (Google’s App Market), is being detected. It is noteworthy whether it can be raised.

SK Telecom (017670)On the App Market’One Store’ KT(030200), LG Uplus (032640)Announced on the 3rd that it invested 21 billion won (3.1% stake) and 5 billion won (0.7% stake) respectively. Accordingly, the stake structure of One Store was reorganized into three telecom companies (53.9%), Naver (26.3%), and financial investors (18.6%). SK Telecom, which had announced its listing in the second half of this year, has continuously requested stake purchases from the rest of the telecom companies in order to determine the stake structure before listing.

In 2016, the three telecom companies merged their app markets (SK Telecom T Store, KT Olleh Market, LG U+ U+ Store) and Naver App Store into one store. Currently, business cooperation has been continued, such as providing a 10% discount on membership for one-store paid payments to users of the three companies. There was a consensus to increase the competitiveness of the native app market, and the partnership is expected to further solidify as equity investments are also made.

In particular, in the situation where the expansion of the Google Play in-app payment is imminent, a movement to push the One Store is being detected in the political world, and it is evaluated that cooperation with the three communication companies was made at a very important point. From October 1st, Google plans to expand the in-app payment obligation, which was applied only to existing games, to all digital contents such as webtoons, music, and videos. When paying through in-app payment, 30% of the payment is incurred as a fee. Currently, OneStore’s in-app payment fee is 20%.

Nam-Gon Choi, a researcher at Yuanta Securities, said, “If large domestic game companies that have delayed entering the store because of their lack of awareness, it will become a competitive competition at least in Korea when applying Google in-app payment in the future. Because it is inexpensive, consumers who purchase game items can also move to one store.” It is known that in-app payment sales are mainly generated by game companies.

As of August of last year, OneStore’s domestic app market market share was 18.3%, a record high. While Google Play is overwhelmingly in the lead with 71.2% of the market share, the Apple App Store is behind One Store with 10.5%. One Store recorded a net profit surplus last year on an annual basis. It has been 5 years since its launch in 2016. In addition, the total transaction amount has increased for 10 consecutive quarters.

Meanwhile, as the stake structure of One Store is confirmed, the company’s listing work is also expected to undergo rapid progress. One Store selected KB Securities, NH Investment & Securities, and SK Securities as the organizers of IPOs in September of last year.