As per revenue, LG Uplus is currently the third-largest mobile carrier in South Korea. This Monday, they officially announced their collaboration with the country’s No.1 search engine Naver. Together, they are eyeing the growing artificial intelligence speaker market, which is already donned by powerhouses like SK Telecom and KT.
As a result of the collaboration, the AI platform Clova-based speaker Friends Plus edition of Naver will be able to access Internet Protocol TV and the home Internet of Things services once they get connected to the set-top boxes of LG Uplus.
The users will also be able to control the services with the voice command. The collaborative home AI platform, renamed as “U+ Our Home AI”, is capable of providing voice-controlled services like video-on-demand, operations of home utilities, information searches on Naver, foreign language tutoring, mobile shopping etc.
This partnership will make Naver’s massive database along with Naver’s translator Papago capable of providing a voice-activated translation of English, Chinese and Japanese accessible to the LG Uplus subscribers.
As per the latest offer, on subscribing to the IPTV or IoT services of LG Uplus by January 31, the users will get the Friends speaker for free.
The users need to call “Clova” only once at the beginning of their first question before entering their voice commands to search related information on a particular topic. This procedure is easier than the rival AI speakers SKT’s NUGU and KT’s GiGA Genie.
In spite of being the smallest among the three existing mobile carriers in terms of total revenue and subscribers, LG Uplus does lead the IPTV and home IoT markets.
With over 1 million subscribers in the home IoT market, LG Uplus currently holds 71% of the domestic market.
Kwon Young-soo, Vice Chairman & CEO of LG Uplus quoted “LG Uplus will provide smarter home IoT services with Naver’s AI platform, continuing to upgrade AI functions and offer more customized home services”.
