LG Uplus is expanding its membership benefits overseas. It will launch a service within the year that offers shopping, tourism and transport discounts at overseas travel destinations through partnerships with global telecom operators.

LG Uplus said on Saturday it has completed its membership in the global telecom alliance, the Wonderjoy Travel Alliance, and finished a pilot programme in Japan.

The Wonderjoy Travel Alliance is a global telecom cooperation platform in which telecom operators in each country share their affiliated benefits with one another. Only 1 telecom operator per country can join.

Participants currently include Singapore’s Singtel, Japan’s KDDI, Hong Kong’s HKT, Thailand’s AIS, Taiwan Mobile, the Philippines’ Globe, Indonesia’s Telkomsel and Australia’s Optus. LG Uplus joined as the partner for South Korea.

Through the alliance, LG Uplus will expand its existing membership programme, which has been focused on domestic benefits, to overseas markets. Once the full service begins, customers will be able to use affiliated benefits secured by local telecom operators while travelling abroad, including for shopping, tourism and transport.

Earlier, LG Uplus ran a pilot service in Japan from June through the end of August. It offered applicants among customers subscribed to its Roaming Pass discount coupons for Don Quijote and Lawson, discounts for Go Taxi, benefits for a one-day Mount Fuji tour and discount coupons for the New Woman shopping mall.

More than 10,000 coupons were downloaded during the pilot period. Nine out of 10 customers who downloaded coupons were found to have actually used the discounts at Don Quijote and Lawson. Users in their 40s accounted for 34.8 percent, the most among customers who used the benefits. They were followed by those in their 30s at 24.8 percent, their 50s at 18.6 percent and their 20s at 15.7 percent.

During the pilot, LG Uplus also confirmed customer feedback that coupons provided by text message are hard to find again at the time of actual use. It is therefore pushing a plan to provide the full service on an app basis so customers can check benefits when needed.

It plans to improve the service’s completeness by reflecting usage data and customer feedback gathered from the pilot, and then roll out the full service within the year. It is also reviewing ways to link it with travel-related services such as travel reservations, activities and commerce.

Hye-gyeong Lim (임혜경), head of tariff products at LG Uplus, said, "By joining the Wonderjoy Travel Alliance, we laid the groundwork for using benefits offered by local telecom operators more conveniently." She added, "We will expand global partnerships to continue providing differentiated travel benefits."