Expanding Cells
SEOUL, South Korea -- Stuck on a cramped bus in this congested city's rush-hour traffic, Oh Hye Rin whips out her cellphone and puts it to work. The 25-year-old Web designer logs onto her wireless Internet service and starts downloading Korean pop songs to the MP3 player in her phone. Then she switches to online banking, pays some bills and transfers money.
South Korea, where about 70% of the country's 48 million citizens have mobile phones, and where the broadband penetration rate is one of the highest in the world, offers a glimpse into a future in which cellphones play an increasingly multifunctional role of connecting people to the Internet. For local cellphone providers, the challenge is to feed this expanding market with new data services.
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Sotto Voce
While voice service is still the biggest source of revenue for the three biggest mobile-phone service providers here, SK Telecom Co., KT Freetel Co. and LG Telecom Ltd., analysts say voice has little room for further growth. At LG Telecom, voice revenue hit 1.2 trillion won ($1.03 billion) last year, but the company hasn't forecast voice revenue for this year. Even though data services brought in only 120 billion won last year, data revenue is expected to surge 65% this year. LG Telecom is a unit of the LG Group industrial conglomerate.
"South Korea's mobile-phone market is saturated," says Han In Q, a senior analyst at research firm International Data Corp., of Framingham, Mass. Moreover, he adds, "subscription-based growth will be capped as the majority of the population already own a mobile phone."
Simple data services, meanwhile, like SMS, a cheap method of communicating through short text messages sent via mobile phones, are no longer major revenue earners either. So, while the carriers are placing new emphasis on data services, they have to be very creative. Residents of Seoul already use their phones to watch movies, activate home appliances, bank online and post photos and commentary on Web sites. So the trick now is to work in partnership with banks and credit-card companies, appliance makers and even construction companies to devise even more services to maximize phone usage in everyday life.
Turning cellphones into remote-control devices for home appliances is seen as a particularly promising area. Since April, residents of a large Seoul apartment complex who sign up for the service with SK Telecom have been able to control lights, TV sets and other electronic appliances with their phones while they're away. The user dials into a control module in their home that is linked to their electronic devices. Lee Hee Won, a 56-year-old recent retiree who spends a lot of time traveling, says the service is convenient. "You don't have to worry about leaving the lights on because you can always check with your cellphone whenever and wherever you want," he says.
Calling the tune: Students test out an MP3 phone
Many local construction companies and digital home-appliance makers welcome the idea as a future money maker, too. Builders see partnering with telecom companies as a great way to project their image as industry leaders with advanced technology. For LG Engineering & Construction Corp., builders of the Seoul complex served by SK Telecom, providing residents with remote control for their appliances "has a great advertising effect, which could generate more profits in the long term," says Lee Sun Woo, an assistant manager of LG Construction's merchandise-development team. LG Construction is a unit of LG Group.
Mobile commerce is an area that is already heavily served, but providers still see a lot of potential. Two years ago, Kim Hyung Seok, a senior manager at the mobile online-banking division of LG Telecom, was sent on a four-day mission to the outskirts of Seoul with two of his colleagues and two managers from Kookmin Bank to come up with a way to combine mobile phones and banking services.
Mr. Kim subsequently met with cellphone manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics Co. and Curitel Communications Inc., to discuss ways to stuff those companies' handsets with new features for mobile banking. Today, about 800,000 clients use mobile banking services from LG Telecom to do business at five banks, including Kookmin Bank. And three mobile-phone manufacturers offer handsets equipped with LG Telecom's mobile-banking features.
Mobile-banking customers can perform interbank transfers, make deposit inquiries and payments and credit-card settlements, among other transactions. Through its partnership with LG Telecom, Kookmin Bank had sold 280,075 handsets by the end of 2003. Woori Bank, which has been offering a competing mobile-banking service with SK Telecom since March, has more than 66,000 subscribers.
LG Telecom's Mr. Kim also worked closely with local banks to develop services that make mobile phones work like credit cards and mass-transit payment cards. Special chips issued by banks are embedded in handsets so that the phones can be used to make purchases at stores and to pay subway and bus fares. "Your mobile phone can replace your wallet," says Mr. Kim.
Ring in the New
And your MP3 player. With handset makers increasingly turning out phones that double as MP3 players for music and movie files, wireless carriers stand to make money on the air time it takes the users to download those files. Most of the carriers have introductory offers during which they let customers download music and movie files free or at low prices. But when the offers end, the prices can be discouragingly high.
Shim Woo In, a 25-year-old engineer who works for an architecture company in Seoul, listens to music on his Samsung MP3-player phone every day. He started with free wireless downloads of songs and music videos on his phone, but now he is charged 1.3 won for every 0.5 kilobyte of data he downloads. That works out to some 7,000 won (about $6) a song. So Mr. Shim now uses his desktop computer to download the files from the Internet, then uploads the files to his player-phone using a USB cable, which doesn't cost him anything.
Still, South Korea's carriers believe the local market for mobile data services is hot enough that demand for music and movie downloads will soon make such services profitable despite the high price. Carriers are offering deals including a 70% or so discount for mobile music and movie downloads, which works out to about 2,000 won a song. SK Telecom, which has been offering the mobile multimedia service since late 2002, forecasts that its subscribers for the service will surge more than 30% to four million by the end of this year from nearly three million now.
手机让生活更加丰富多彩
在汉城这座车水马龙的城市的上班高峰期，Oh Hye Rin被挤在摩肩接踵的车厢里面。她掏出手机，打开手机电源。这位25岁的网页设计师利用无线服务连接到互联网，然后把韩国的流行音乐下载到手机上的MP3播放器里面。之后，她登录到网上银行，支付了一些帐单并划拨了一些款项。
从韩国的手机应用中我们可以对手机功能今后的发展前景有个大致的了解：手机的功能将变得越发强大，将在把人们和互联网紧密地连接起来的过程中发挥更大的作用。对于韩国的手机运营商来说，它们所要面临的任务就是如何开发新的数据服务来满足不断扩大的市场。韩国的4,800万国民中约有70%的人拥有手机，而且，韩国的宽频普及率也是全球最高的地区之一。
虽然语音服务仍然是韩国三大手机运营商──鲜京电讯公司(South Korea Telecom Co.(SK Telecom))、KT Freetel Co.、LG Telecom Ltd.最主要的收入来源，但分析师们认为语音服务未来的增长空间将十分有限。以LG Telecom为例，该公司去年的语音业务收入为1.2万亿韩圆（合10.3亿美元），但该公司并未对今年的语音业务收入做出预测。虽然去年的数据业务收入仅有1,200亿韩圆，但预计今年的收入将激增65%。LG Telecom是韩国工业集团LG Group旗下的子公司。
国际数据公司(International Data Corp., 简称IDC)的高级分析师Han In Q表示，韩国的手机市场已经呈饱和状态。他表示，通过用户增长来发展的空间将受到限制，因为大部分韩国国民已经拥有手机。
与此同时，像短信息等简单的数据服务也不再是主要的收入来源。因此，虽然运营商们意识到要重点发展数据服务，但他们必须具有非常强的创新意识。汉城居民已经开始使用手机来观看电影、激活家电、创建网上银行以及在互联网发送照片和发表评论。因此，现在来看手机发展的关键在于手机运营商同银行、信用卡发行商、家电制造商以及建筑公司携起手来设计出更多的服务，以最大限度地丰富手机在日常生活中的用途。
用手机来在远程遥控家用电器看起来是个前景十分光明的应用。今年4月起，汉城一座公寓大楼的居民在同鲜京电讯签署了协议之后便能对灯光、电视和其他家用电器进行远程操作。刚刚退休的Lee Hee Won把大量时间花在旅游上面，他表示手机的远程遥控功能给他带来了很大的方便。他表示，不用在出门之后担心家里的灯是否仍然开著，因为可以在任何时候和任何地方通过手机来操控电灯。
许多当地的建筑公司和数码家电制造商也把这项应用视为一个盈利增长点。建筑商认为同电信公司结盟对于树立拥有先进科技、在行业中居于领先地位的企业形象大有帮助。例如，上文提到的汉城公寓大楼的建筑商LG Engineering & Construction Corp.销售拓展团队的助理经理Lee Sun Woo表示，为住户提供家电的远程遥控功能给企业带来了良好的广告效应，这从长远来讲会给企业带来更多的利润。LG Engineering & Construction是LG Group的子公司。
手机商务已经十分盛行，但手机运营商认为该业务仍有很大的增长潜力。2年前，LG Telecom手机网上银行部门的高级经理Kim Hyung Seok和他的两个同事以及韩国国民银行(Kookmin Bank, Q.KOB)的两位经理来到汉城郊区进行了长达4天的研讨，探讨如何把手机和银行业务结合在一起。
之后Kim会晤了三星电子(Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., 005930.SE)、Curitel Communications Inc.等手机制造商，讨论如何为它们的产品增加手机银行这一新功能的事宜。如今，约有80万客户使用LG Telecom提供的手机银行服务，处理韩国国民银行等5家银行之间的交易。已有3家手机制造商推出了提供LG Telecom的手机银行功能的手机。
手机银行客户可以进行跨行转帐、存款查询、支付、信用卡结算等交易。截至2003年年底时，通过和LG Telecom的结盟，韩国国民银行共售出了280,075部手机。和鲜京电讯合作共同推出手机银行的Woori Bank从3月以来已经拥有超过6.6万的用户。
LG Telecom的Kim还同本地银行密切合作开发新的服务，例如用手机来实现信用卡以及可进行大宗金额转帐的支付卡功能。手机内部嵌入著银行签发的专用晶片，因此这种手机可以用于购物、支付地铁和公共汽车费。Kim表示，手机甚至可以替代钱包。
手机还可以成为MP3播放器。随著手机制造商不断推出兼备MP3音乐播放器和电影文档功能的手机，无线运营商开始从用户下载影音文件中赚取利润。大多数运营商都推出了试用服务，允许客户免费或者以较为低廉的价格下载影音文件。但试用期过后，下载费用陡然升高，甚至变得令人难以接受。
现年25岁、就职于汉城一家建筑公司的Shim Woo In每天都用具有MP3播放功能的三星(Samsung)手机听歌。开始时，他用他的手机免费下载歌曲和音乐节目录像，但现在他每下载0.5千字节的数据就得支付1.3韩圆的费用。这相当于下载一首歌曲需要支付约7,000韩圆（合6美元）的费用。Shim现在用他的台式电脑从互联网上下载文件，之后通过USB线把歌曲上传到手机里面，这个过程无需支付任何费用。
不过，韩国的运营商认为，尽管收费不菲，但韩国的移动数据服务市场已经非常火爆了，对影音文件下载的需求很快就会使该服务成为一个赚钱的业务。运营商正在提供一系列优惠服务，例如为用手机下载影音文件的用户提供70%左右的折扣，这样一来，用户下载一首歌曲只需支付约2,000韩圆的费用。自2002年年底以来一直在推广移动多媒体服务的鲜京电讯预计，到今年年底，该公司移动多媒体服务的订户数量将从目前的接近300万人增至400万人，增幅超过30%。
