Toss enters the telecommunications market… Deeper

As Viva Publica (Toss) has acquired a budget phone operator, the small and medium-sized phone industry is deepening.

Toss announced on the 21st that it has signed a stock sales contract to acquire a 100%stake in Merchant Korea. The acquisition process will be completed next month.

When the acquisition process is completed, we also plan to create a budget phone sales channel in the Toss app. The company plans to start search and opening services through the Toss app. In the process of signing up for the affordable phone, the toss certificate is used.

In the financial sector, it is the second advancement after KB Kookmin Bank, and small and medium-sized phone operators are nervous at the wavelength of Toss. They are concerned that the entry of Toss, which has enormous capital and high recognition, will deepen market imbalances.

■ Toss is superiority in both marketing and capital… Fair competition

Among small and medium-sized phone operators, there is an embarrassment of Toss's entry into the market. With the success of KB Kookmin Bank's affordable phone 'KB Live M', it was prepared to enter the budget phone market such as Shinhan Bank and Hana Bank, but did not expect to enter electronic financial operators such as Toss.

In the affordable phone industry, Toss's entry into the wholesaler will trigger the competition for the following plans.

An official in the affordable phone industry said, Small and medium-sized phones are already competing for wholesale rates such as 0 won plan for a certain period of time. Toss appeared and I don't know how to deal with it.

There are some opinions that financial companies have marketing capabilities and capital than existing small and medium-sized phone operators, so it is impossible to competition. Shin Min-soo, a professor of business administration at Hanyang University, said, The general affordable phone operators will not be able to suffer.

The National Mobile Telecommunications Association (KMDA), a front-line retailer, also expressed that Toss's entry into the agreement phone will erode the telecommunications market. An official of KMDA said, If the entry into the telecommunications market throughout the financial sector after the entry of Toss, the decline in sales of existing telecommunication stores will occur in the budget phone industry.

In the end, the market competition between small and medium-sized phone operators is expected to increase, he said.

■ 2030 financial app 'Toss', will young people demand to read

There is also an analysis that Toss, which has a high recognition at 2030, can read the demand for the budget ph1. Recently, the proportion of affordable phone subscribers in the 2030 households is increasing.

An industry official criticized, Toss has a lot of 2030 users, so the monopoly on sales channels through the Toss app is actually a 2030 affordable phone demand. Fair competition itself will be impossible.

Toss is expected to launch a large number of fare products that connect telecommunications and finance, such as KB Kookmin Bank, which had previously entered the budget phone market.

KB Kookmin Bank has entered the affordable phone market after being selected as the No. 1 Innovation Financial Service, which was designated since the Special Act on Financial Innovation Support. KB Kookmin Bank offers a discount of 2,200 won per month for users who have salary transfer earnings or users with subscription products. KB Live M has secured 300,000 subscribers in two years after its launch, with a positive response.

Professor Shin Min-soo said, For financial companies, the budget phone is not a kind of connection service, not the flagship business model. I will try to promote it.

Kim Yong-hee, a professor of business administration at Soongsil University, said, Toss seems to have chosen communication as one of the ways to improve it because the average sales (ARPU) per subscriber is getting worse. It seems to do it.