KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 3): Celcom Axiata Bhd has teamed up with SK Planet Co Ltd, the wholly-owned internet services arm of South Korea’s leading mobile operator SK Telecom Co Ltd, to collaborate on e-commerce business opportunities in Malaysia.

In a statement today, Celcom said a joint venture (JV) company called Celcom Planet has been formed to look at exploring, seeking and pursuing e-commerce projects here.

The JV will also allow Celcom to expand its reach in the digital industry as well as build long-term capabilities in the digital space.

Celcom chief execuive officer Datuk Seri Shazalli Ramly said the initiative underlines Celcom’s expanding digital services portfolio, which is designed to create a digital ecosystem and to increase revenue streams that will eventually benefit its customers, service providers and content developers, as well as the traditional brick and mortar merchants.

“Celcom is committed in creating and maintaining effective partnerships to support commercialisation and to foster a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship,” he said.

“We strongly believe that this latest initiative can spearhead Celcom’s advancement in the digital space as SK Planet has successfully ventured into the e-commerce domain and has a strong background in this field as well as digital content.

“Leveraging SK Planet’s platform and operations know-how, coupled with Celcom’s experience and knowledge of the local market, we are confident that this collaboration will be very successful,” he added.

Celcom Planet is expected to launch an optimised e-commerce platform by the second half of 2015.