LG Uplus shared its business growth strategy with a new brand slogan of 'Acceleration of Innovation Centered on AX' amid sluggish operating profit in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period last year.

LG Uplus held an online performance sharing meeting on the 17th to look back on the first quarter and share future business directions and plans with employees. At the performance sharing meeting, the company unveiled its new brand slogan, 'Growth Leading AX Company' (a company that leads customer growth through AI transformation).

The new slogan maintains the company's existing vision of being a 'digital innovation company that drives enjoyable changes in customers' daily lives', and contains the meaning that it will accelerate innovation centered around AX, drive customer growth, and grow the company itself.

LG Uplus announced on the 9th that based on the K-IFRS consolidated financial statements, it recorded sales of KRW 3.577 trillion, service sales of KRW 2.8939 trillion, and operating profit of KRW 220.9 billion in the first quarter of 2024. Service sales are sales excluding terminal sales from operating sales. Sales increased by 1.0% compared to the same period last year, and service sales excluding terminal sales from total sales increased by 2.5%. In addition, mobile business sales increased 1.3% year-on-year to KRW 1.581 trillion. Wireless service sales, excluding connection sales, grew 1.9% to KRW 1.5071 trillion.

Operating profit was recorded at KRW 220.9 billion, down 15.1% year-on-year due to the reflection of costs for the construction of a new integrated computer network and increased marketing expenses due to increased mobile phone sales. LG Uplus announced that it developed and applied an integrated computer system last year that is easy to apply AI technology and has significantly enhanced security.

The increased marketing expenses amounted to KRW 546.7 billion, a 2.3% increase from KRW 534.3 billion in the first quarter of last year, and it was explained that this affected operating profit. CAPEX (equipment investment) in the first quarter was KRW 384.9 billion, a 25.9% decrease from the same period last year, as the construction of base stations was completed due to the additional 20MHz frequency allocation.

LG Uplus cited the growth of the B2B corporate infrastructure sector as the background for the expansion of service sales. The corporate infrastructure sector, which includes solutions, IDC, and corporate lines for companies, recorded sales of KRW 405 billion, up 9.9% year-on-year. LG Uplus said, “The growth of the ‘solution business’ including new businesses such as AICC (Artificial Intelligence Contact Center) and smart mobility, and the ‘IDC business’ achieved double-digit sales growth rates, leading the performance.”

On this day, LG Uplus emphasized incorporating AI into all areas of the company. LG Uplus CEO Hwang Hyun-sik named three key words for growing into an AX Company: “organizational imagination” to imagine changes in customers’ lives and systematically immerse himself in them; “speed” to quickly execute them; and “organizational culture” to collaborate as a single team to achieve them.

LG Uplus also shared its financial performance for the first quarter along with performance and plans by sector, including consumer and corporate. In particular, it disclosed key tasks in the AI sector and its ultra-large AI strategy for growing into an AX company.

LG Uplus AI and Data Product Manager (Senior Managing Director) Sung Jun-hyun, who was in charge of the AI sector announcement, said, “Our goal is to apply AI to all of the company’s businesses and tasks,” and announced the progress of four key tasks: AICC for customer centers, AICC for B2B, AI Agent for mobile services, and Work Agent for employees.

LG Uplus is focusing on developing 'ixi-GEN', a large-scale AI language model specialized for communications, in collaboration with LG AI Research Center, and plans to sequentially apply ixi-GEN to core AI tasks. In the future, the company also announced plans to actively increase collaboration with global big tech companies and lay the foundation for becoming a 'Growth Leading AX Company'.