Kim Ji Hoon: Moving on, I am Kim Ji Hoon, Head of Growth and I’d like to provide you with some more details regarding AI service, in particular, A. Since official launch, new features such as call recording and sleep management have been added to A. to evolve it as a personal AI assistant, and they’ve been receiving much interest and positive customer responses in the market. In particular, the iPhone call recording function that we recently introduced has been leading the growth of A., thanks to its popularity. So recently, A. ranked #1 in the free app category of Apple App Store and #1 in lifestyle category of Google Play Store, it is still ranked high with sustained user acquisition. And going forward, we will add on other functions, including personalized recommendations and diverse AI features to continue to innovate customer experience and to help the experience of using A.
phone to lead to the use of diverse A. content. And to build capabilities as a personal AI assistant, A. is not only strengthening internal capabilities but also forging collaboration with external partners. We are reinforcing the existing cooperation with start-ups such as Scatter Lab and AC and preparing for new partnerships with diverse companies. And for the first month, since the official launch, we have been focusing on experimenting and validating diverse aspects for customer experience innovation so there are additional features that we will add during the rest of the year. So please understand that we would like to report on the market responses on a later occasion, rather than giving you any numbers at this point in time. And I’d like to also comment on your question regarding business models related to A.
For A., we are considering the possibility of bundling up various services, including fleet management and photo profile to offer them as bundled subscription model. In the market, already some companies are charging on a monthly basis or per usage regarding AI content, including photo profile, and we are considering similar business models for A. Another potential business model is to take profit by charging fees on various transactions and services that occur in the process of using various A. services and as well as charging fees on advertising, which is based on personalized content offering. However, at this point in time, we are more focused on expanding the user convenience after the official launch to enhance our service experience for customers.
We are constantly introducing new features and advancing them. Thank you.
Operator: The following question will be presented by Joonsop Kim from KB Securities.
Joonsop Kim: I’d like to ask 2 questions. The first one is about third quarter earnings results. And the second question has to do with your roaming business. So when we look at the earnings results for the third quarter, they are very good and better than what the market had expected. So I’d like to understand your forward projection for the following quarters in terms of earnings because there are various factors that may impact your earnings results, including the power prices as well as inflation and other factors. The second question has to do with your roaming business. Now the pandemic is over and more people are traveling overseas. So I’d like to understand to what degree your roaming revenue has recovered? And what is your outlook going forward?
Jin-won Kim: Thank you for the question. As you understand, our Q3 operating income posted KRW 498 billion, up 7% year-over-year, and it is thanks to profit growth of both SK Telecom and SK Broadband as well as earnings improvements of other subsidiaries. As you mentioned, there have been several cost factors, including higher energy prices and inflation, however, SK Telecom was able to grow its operating income, thanks to solid growth of MNO revenue, including roaming, and we were able to continue the stabilizing trends of major expenses such as marketing and depreciation. And as a result, our operating income grew 4.7% year-over-year. Moving on to SK Broadband. Its operating income also was able to grow, thanks to B2B revenue growth centered on data centers and the growth of high ARPU B2C subscribers for IPTV, which contributed to revenue growth and cost efficiency.
