SK Telecom is combining telecommunications and financial data to analyse local commercial districts and support small merchants.

SKT said on Tuesday it signed a memorandum of understanding for data sharing and joint research to support small merchants with the Seoul Credit Guarantee Foundation, KB Kookmin Bank and KB Kookmin Card. The signing ceremony was held on Monday at KB Kookmin Bank's new building in Yeouido, Seoul. SKT, the Seoul Credit Guarantee Foundation and KB Kookmin Card have continued data cooperation since 2021, with KB Kookmin Bank newly joining.

The four organisations will combine SKT's foot-traffic data, KB Kookmin Card's merchant sales, the Seoul Credit Guarantee Foundation's commercial-district activation index and shop histories, and KB Kookmin Bank's deposit and loan data. They will use it to analyse regional changes in commercial districts and small merchants' funding demand, and to more precisely design the timing of policy funding and guarantee support.

They plan to work with the Seoul metropolitan government and district offices to expand support models tailored to the characteristics of each commercial district. They will provide related data to Seoul's commercial-district analysis service to improve the accuracy of analysing locations and shop information. Small merchants can use it to check visitors' age and gender, time-based stay patterns, and sales flows of similar businesses.

The ceremony also presented a case study analysing the Sinchon and Yeonsei-ro commercial district in Seoul. After the district began operating a Sunday "car-free street", its nighttime foot traffic and the share of long-stay visitors increased, shifting it from a pass-through district to a stay-oriented district. The number of visitors who stayed for more than 2 hours and the revisit rate of local residents also rose. It also confirmed a tendency for funding demand in the district to concentrate in September to October, when the Chuseok holiday and the start of the semester overlap.

Kim Myeong-guk (김명국), head of Industrial AI at SKT, said, "Beyond simple technical support, SKT will strengthen its role as a data-based business partner that small merchants can feel."