SOCAR sharply increased operating profit in the second quarter of this year on the back of rising car-sharing use and growth in its parking platform business.
SOCAR disclosed on the 11th that, on a consolidation basis, it posted second-quarter revenue of 121 billion won and operating profit of 6.8 billion won. Those were up 23% and 271%, respectively, from a year earlier. Operating profit remained in the black for the eighth straight quarter.
Net profit was 6.5 billion won, swinging to a profit from a net loss of 1.8 billion won a year earlier.
Increased car-sharing use drove the results. SOCAR said that, helped by a free pricing policy for EV driving and a freeze on driving fees for internal combustion engine vehicles, second-quarter car-sharing usage time reached 13.21 million hours, up 9.3% from a year earlier.
The premium car-sharing service "Black Label," launched in February, is also seeing wider use. The number of vehicles in operation in the second quarter increased about tenfold from the initial pilot, and the utilization rate rose 8 percentage points. As demand has grown not only for long-distance trips but also for protocol vehicles, revenue per Black Label vehicle was 61% higher and gross profit per vehicle was 103% higher than for existing car-sharing vehicles.
Revenue from the parking platform "Modu Parking" was 3.3 billion won, up 24% from a year earlier. Quarterly transaction value rose 27%, topping 20 billion won for the first time and marking a record high. The number of parking facilities with new transactions in the first half exceeded 400.
Starting in the second half, SOCAR will ramp up its "SOCAR The NEXT" strategy, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), full-stack mobility, and Autonomous Driving.
First, the plan is to use AI to cut expenses and boost revenue at the same time. According to SOCAR, applying AI across in-house operations is reducing overhead by 15% while improving workforce productivity. The company is also pursuing ways to acquire new users at home and abroad by linking with a Generative AI search engine.
It will also strengthen its "full-stack mobility" business that connects car-sharing, vehicle subscriptions, and used-car sales. The company will build services that cover vehicle demand across the life cycle, from after obtaining a driver's license to seniors, and add new services in the second half to broaden user touchpoints.
In Autonomous Driving, it will establish a data business foundation through the newly established affiliate Apex Mobility. SOCAR plans to start real-world operations as early as this year with vehicles equipped with a full sensor kit to directly collect training data for Autonomous Driving.
It will also continue shareholder-return policies. SOCAR is conducting additional share buybacks for the purpose of full cancellation and is considering announcing a plan in the second half for canceling all shares purchased and enhancing corporate value.
Park Jae-uk, CEO of SOCAR and Apex Mobility, said, "We will both shift to a profit-generating structure through continued operational efficiency strategies and regularize shareholder value return policies to help raise corporate value," adding, "In the second half, while strengthening the 'full-stack mobility' services that cover vehicle demand across the entire life cycle, we will also speed up preparations to operate vehicles equipped with the 'full sensor kit' at the newly established Autonomous Driving affiliate Apex Mobility, and steadily make our second-half growth momentum more concrete."