New mobility business unit
SK Telecom is divesting its mobility business unit into a new company, which has provisionally been named T Map Mobility. This will include T Map, T Map Taxi, T Map Auto, T Map Public Transportation and T Map Parking.
T Map is the largest mobility platform in Korea with around 13 million monthly active users. While T Map Taxi has 200,000 registered drivers and 750,000 monthly active users, making it the second largest in Korea.
Seoul-based SKT has been restructuring its business portfolio for some time and now has four core business areas: Mobile Communications, Media (SK Broadband, Wavve, Dreamus Company), Security (ADT Caps, SK Infosec) and Commerce (11 Street, SK Stoa). Mobility has become an additional core business and is expected to generate synergies with SKT’s other business units.
T Map Mobility will focus on four main areas:
- the T Map-based platform business in areas such as parking, advertising and usage-based insurance (UBI)
- T Map Auto services such as in-vehicle infotainment and in-car payment
- on-demand mobility services such as taxi-hailing and designated driver services
- all-in-one Mobility as a Service (MaaS), which offers diverse means of transportation at discounted rates through subscription.
SKT says it expects T Map Mobility to grow from its current valuation of approximately KRW1 trillion to KRW4.5 trillion by 2025, with further funding coming from external investors.
Joint Venture with Uber
SKT has also formed a JV with Uber to promote the e-hailing business in Korea. The JV will see SKT’s T Map Mobility network of drivers and mapping technology combined with Uber’s ride hailing technology and global operations expertise.
Uber will invest USD100+ million in the joint venture, as well as USD50 million in T Map Mobility to strengthen the strategic partnership.
