South Korea's SK Telecom Co plans to open an online marketplace in China this year and is contacting Taobao and other Chinese e-commerce firms for possible partnerships, an executive said on Wednesday.
SK Telecom, South Korea's top mobile operator, last week opened an customer-to-customer online shopping site, "11st" (http://www.11st.co.kr), targeting the country's $17 billion e-commerce market, currently dominated by Yahoo-owned Gmarket and eBay Inc's local unit.
"We are aiming for more than 1 trillion won ($1.06 billion) in transaction value in 2009," Chong Nak-kyun, senior vice president of SK Telecom's commerce business, told Reuters in an interview. "We will be able to start generating profits once transaction value reaches 1 trillion won, helped by gains from mobile payment and advertisements."
SK is contacting Chinese players such as Taobao, the online consumer auction arm of Alibaba's, and Tom Online's tom.com, Chong said. "We're meeting with these Chinese companies for a possible partnership and to find out more about the Chinese market," Chong said.
SK, which has 22 million subscribers for its mobile phone services, hopes to leverage its broad customer base, strong cash flow and mobile commerce capabilities to make e-commerce its new revenue source. It plans to open the mobile version of "11st" late March or in April, Chong said. High-speed mobile technologies enable mobile commerce using Internet browsing and settlements on phones.
South Korea's e-commerce market is expected to more than double to 35 trillion won by 2012 from 16.5 trillion won at the end of 2007, helped by high broadband penetration, according to the government and industry data.
The open market, or customer-to-customer market, accounts for about half of the market currently. "In 2012, our transaction value will reach 4 to 5 trillion won and give us some 1 trillion won in revenue," Chong said, forecasting it will have a 20 to 25 percent market share then.
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