Seoul, Korea - SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM) today announced that its mobile payment service T cash has been named as the "Most Innovative Application of the Year" at the 2010 Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific ICT Awards. The awards were presented to the winners on Thursday, June 10 at an awardcelebration held in Singapore.
T cash was launched in January 2009 and is South Korea's most pervasive mobile payment system, joined by some 40 franchise businesses. It allows more than 840,000 mobile users to pay for the bus, train and taxi fares, as well as the services and products at 40,000 affiliate stores and sites in South Korea - including 20,000 convenient stores and 100 different online sites from games to shopping and social networking service. The unparalleled uptake also serves to underscore SK Telecom's expertise in converged services and ability to demonstrate user value.
"We are honored that T cash has been selected by Frost & Sullivan as the 'Most Innovative Application of the Year'.The award is a testimony to SK Telecom's consistent mobile convergence efforts," said Sung Cheol Hong, Executive Vice President and Head of Service Business Division, MNO Business at SK Telecom. "T cash has become a big hit because the concept is backed by a simple and compelling user proposition, and it has strong market share and leadership in product innovation, which is among the key criteria for this year's awards."
In its seventh year, the annual Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific Awards are presented to companies that demonstrate best practices in their industry, commending the diligence, commitment and innovative business strategies required to advance in the global marketplace.
The Most Innovative Application of the Year is among the Best of the Best Awards, given to honor services regarded as having a high level of innovation, marketing strategy and market potential. In 2008, SK Telecom won the same award for its mobile gift coupon service, Gifticon.
The award was decided by a distinguished panel of judges comprising senior executives from the industry, circle of CIOs and CTOs and Frost & Sullivan analysts. This highlights SK Telecom's relentless efforts in delivering exceptional business performance for its mobile payment service T cash for the year of 2009.
T cash is very easy to use as subscribers can reload it and the value is seamlessly rechargeable. The value added can be charged to the subscriber's credit card or phone bill. There are T cash recharging machines along all the subway stations in the Seoul metropolitan area and at various convenience stores in South Korea. Users can enjoy T cash by simply embedding a financial-services enabled USIM card to their 3G handsets with RFID function.
T cash, which first became popular in the public transport sector as the main mode of payment, has now created a mobile payment culture called "Touch & Go" that benefits users across South Korea. Continuing on its leadership in mobile payment, SK Telecom is developing new services to encourage more usage and increase customer value.
This year, the company also launched a new smart payment service called T Smart Pay targeted at retail stores in Korea. Smart Payment is an integrated payment solution, which works just like a mobile wallet by enabling membership/mileage point/coupon issuance, concurrent mobile payment, ad and promotion participation and post-payment management, all through a single mobile interface. The company also recently invested in a domestic credit card compay, paving the way for expansion of mobile credit card business and creating new opportunities in mobile payment and commerce.
SOURCE: SK
