Telecommunications firm KT said Tuesday it has opened South Korea’s first artificial intelligence-based big data platform to be shared and used by individuals and business on demographics, real estate and consumption trends, among others.

The new platform, named KT Big Data Platform, will enable 113 terabytes’ worth of big data trading between individuals and 16 institutions, the firm said. It started operations Monday.

Some of its most prominent features are the AI-powered data prediction, and a real estate-focused solution named Ureca that provides up-to-date information on land price and neighborhood characteristics. Anyone who purchases data through the KT Big Data Platform will gain access to regional consumption trends, the number of social media mentions, and where best to open a shop and sell what, KT said.

“The service would be a breakthrough for the companies who need big data analysis to run their businesses effectively, or those who own the data but do not know how to add value to it,” said Kim Hye-joo, senior vice president of the Big Data Business Planning Department.

The AI predictions try to give foresight into, for example, which dessert will succeed the fad of Taiwanese brown sugar bubble tea and malatang in Korea.

As for Ureca, which name is short for Useful Recommendation Case, the solution identifies locations of similar nature and allows users to compare them. This service is anticipated to draw attention from regional governances who wish for balanced urban development and franchise operators who are seeking to open new stores.

KT on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Information Society Agency and the Shanghai Data Exchange to invigorate data trade between China and Korea, with aims to cover worldwide big data in the future.

The telecom provider was picked by the Ministry of Science and ICT as the telecom partner for the ministry’s project for big data platform and center.

For the recent five months, KT partnered with 16 startups and relevant institutions to build the big data platform. These partners are BC Card, for credit card usage data, Next EZ, for tourism data, DoingLAB, for food nutrition analysis data, Openmate, for real estate data, Kyonggi University, for delivery routes information and Korea Internet & Security Agency, for illegal advertisement identification.

The collected big data are trimmed to five categories of demographics, households, institutions, products and space within KT’s cloud using AI algorithms. Non-expert users can create their own machine learning algorithms for data processing, without having to code, KT said.

KT has already secured some 160 firms as clients for its big data platform, to whom it plans to grant six-months free trial period. Food companies Pulmuone and Nestle, for example, will receive trend reports from KT for their future drinks launches.

As for small business owners and startups, KT plans to give free technical support to spread the use of the platform. The platform may be available on a monthly subscription deal or a case-by-case commission. The detailed pay-for-use structure is yet to be decided.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)