By Jane Han
Staff Reporter

Sur Soo-jin wakes up every morning to her mobile phone alarm, buys breakfast at the convenience store and fills up on gas on her way to work. She talks to co-workers throughout the day via her messenger service and spends an hour or two at night updating her personal homepage before going to bed.

The 25-year-old's day, which many average Koreans can identify with, is an example of a typical routine dominated by SK products and services.

``I use an SK Telecom phone, frequent SK gas stations and mini-marts, chat on SK's Nate On and can't live without Cyworld (SK's Web blog community),'' says Sur. ``I actually didn't realize it was all SK-serviced.''

The country's third-largest conglomerate, made up of 64 affiliate companies, runs some of the most heavily-used local consumer businesses. From operating mobile phones, building apartments to making medicine, SK has built a wide portfolio of operations over the past five decades. But it has often been shunned as a company revolving around domestic demand.

According to company data, OK Cashbag ― SK's cash reward and discount service network, boasts 28 million subscribers; SK Telecom, the nation's No. 1 mobile carrier, has 22 million users; while Nate and Cyworld have 20 million each.

Considering South Korea's 2007 population (around 49 million), it is safe to say that SK has secured a significant percentage of domestic consumers, says Jung Tae-soo, a senior research fellow at the Samsung Economic Research Institute.

While this narrow, market-reliant corporate image prevails for many, company officials say SK, in fact, centers its growth on exports.

``The company's exports increase by about 30 percent every year, while domestic sales rise just below 7 percent annually,'' said SK spokesman Kim Ju-hyun, adding that its biggest exports engine is the company's growing energy business.

He said the conglomerate as a whole expects to record 82 trillion won in revenue this year, 37 percent of it coming from outbound shipments.

``The public tends to paint a bad image of companies that dominate the market,'' said Lim Hae-jin _ a researcher at the Korea Consumer Agency, as she referred to corporate giant GE, which makes everything from refrigerators, jet engines to light bulbs, as a firm often attacked for domination.

``Such `consumer-rich' businesses must try extra hard to satisfy consumers and fulfill their social responsibility,'' she said, ``because many more people are keeping an eye on them to see if they will mess up.''

jhan@koreatimes.co.kr