Seoul, Korea, 24 March 2010 - SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM) today announced that it opened T Smart Pay, the next generation payment service, under cooperation with Hana SK Card.
Smart payment is a concept created to bring increased convenience and economic benefits to all stakeholders including customers, affiliated stores and credit card companies by integrating a wide range of services from payment to membership and coupons. By combining this concept with its advanced ICT, SK Telecom gave birth to the smart payment brand named T Smart Pay. SK Telecom became the world's first to commercialize this combined payment solution that allows customers to pay for an item, receive coupon discounts and add membership points in one single process via mobile phone.
With T Smart Pay, a mobile phone works like an integrated digital wallet. Customers can store credit card information in mobile phones, use integrated payment service and inquire various information.
First of all, customers no longer have to carry plastic credit cards as they can store as many as eight credit cards in their mobile phones. Besides storing credit card information, they can store over 30 membership/point/mileage cards and 50 coupons in their mobile phones.
T Smart Pay also allows customers to experience an integrated form of payment service. After choosing with which credit card they would like to pay, customers can receive discounts by using membership cards, points or coupons. In addition, they can accumulate mileage/points and receive coupons by downloading them from mobile Internet websites or kiosks installed at stores. Furthermore, upon making a payment, customers can enter promotional events organized by stores so as to receive special discount coupons and win promotional gifts.
Customers can enjoy information inquiry services for both credit cards and membership cards. Various credit card-related information including transaction details, remaining credit limit, and payment receipts are accessible via mobile phone. Also customers are provided with membership card information such as used, stored and remaining points.
Customers can use the service after signing up and downloading SK Telecom's self-developed T Smart Pay application to the financial services-enabled USIM card. In addition SK Telecom realized Visa payWave's radio frequency technology to realized contactless payment on mobile phones, thereby enhancing customer convenience.
T Smart Pay is expected to bring benefits to all stakeholders: customers, affiliated stores and credit card companies. By offering the integrated payment and settlement service, T Smart Pay will allow customers to save purchasing cost by leading them to make wiser and more informed purchasing decisions. In addition, affiliated stores are expected to enjoy increased sales as they enhance customer satisfaction through better customer relations management made possible via T Smart Pay. They will also benefit from reduced cost of issuing coupons and flyers. Furthermore, credit card companies are expected to benefit from lower plastic credit card issuance and replacement cost, and increased customer loyalty compared to competing credit card companies.
T Smart Pay will first be offered to customers who are issued with Hana SK Card's IC plastic card and mobile USIM card at discount retailer, Home Plus. Then the company plans to introduce the service to other large-scale discount stores, department stores as well as franchise stores.
Sung-Cheol Hong, Executive Vice President and Head of the Service Division at SK Telecom said, "SK Telecom expects T Smart Pay to help customers make the most economical purchasing decisions. Further plans are underway to constantly upgrade this service based on SK Telecom's leading ICT and we will make proactive efforts to enter the overseas markets to become the global leader in the field of smart payment."
SK Telecom and Hana Financial Group Inc. launched a joint venture named Hana SK Card in February 2010. SK Telecom, under cooperation with Hana SK Card, aims to vitalize the converged market of telecommunications and finance by providing diverse next-generation settlement and payment services.
