I'd like to start a meeting on KDDI's financial results for the first half of the fiscal year ending in March 2024. I'm your emcee, Naoko Oji, from Public Relations Department of KDDI. Thank you for joining us. This meeting is held in person and webcast on the internet, including YouTube, among others. As for today's materials, three materials related to the financial results are loaded on the KDDI's website. Please check them. Those of you who are here, please refer to the handout.
Let me introduce today's participants. Makoto Takahashi, President, Representative Director, CEO. Nanae Saishoji, Managing Executive Officer, CFO, Executive Director, Corporate Sector. Kenji Aketa, Executive Officer, Executive Director, Corporate Management Division, Corporate Sector. Shigeru Ezoe, General Manager, Accounting Department. In total, four members. President Takahashi, the floor is yours. Thank you.
Let me share with you the financial results of the first half of the year, ending in March 2024. Let me explain it in this order. The first half consolidated results of the fiscal year ending in March 2024, enjoyed increased operating revenues and operating income, a good progress versus the full- year forecast. The left shows the operating revenue, which was JPY 2,779 billion, up 1.4% year-on-year. The progress ratio was 47.9%. The right is the operating income, which was JPY 560.3 billion, up 0.2% year-on-year. The progress ratio was 51.9%. Next, let me explain factors for change in the first half consolidating operating income. The first half operating income was up JPY 1 billion year-on-year. From the left, group MVNO and Rakuten roaming revenues were JPY -20.3 billion. Multi-brand communications ARPU revenues were up JPY 800 million. DX was up JPY 5.4 billion.
Financial Business was down JPY 9.9 billion. Energy business was JPY +9.5 billion. Profit increased by growth in communications ARPU revenues and focus areas, despite a decrease in Rakuten roaming revenue. Key points of the consolidated financial results. Looking beyond March 2025, there's steady growth in key areas, creating medium-term earning base. From the left, 5G communications saw its multi-brand communications ARPU revenue rebound in the first half. DX enjoyed steady expansion on profit increase. Financial Business had a double-digit growth in the first half. Energy business increased profit in the second quarter. Next, on rebound in communications ARPU revenues and growth. First, ARPU revenue. Communications ARPU revenues rebounded and value-added ARPU revenue increased. The left shows increased total ARPU revenues. Moving to the right, communications ARPU revenues rebounded. The second quarter result was up JPY 3.7 billion year-on-year. Next shows IDs and communications ARPU.
The left indicates that multi-brand IDs are 30.94 million, up 280,000 year-on-year, plus 40,000 quarter-on-quarter, maintaining an upward trend, growing continuously. The right shows multi-brand communications ARPU, which was JPY 3,960, up JPY 30 quarter-on-quarter. To grow the communications business further, we are enhancing attractiveness of au. First is au Money Activity Plan. Look at the left, please. KDDI has been offering telecommunications plus value-added services set plans tailored to customer needs ahead of peers. Moving to the right. From the 1st of September, we launched au Money Activity Plan, which is an industry-first set plan of telecommunications plus finance. One out of three unlimited max subscribers has chosen this plan, and it's off to a good start compared with the company plan. The second endeavor to enhance attractiveness of au is to increase online content for smartphones.
The left shows that increased online content, such as sports and live content, cultivates smartphone viewing. We offer worry-free, unlimited plan to meet the needs. The right indicates that we utilize our strength in partnering, enhancing free sports distribution. High school baseball games, called Virtual High School Baseball Games, were distributed covering all the games from regional preliminaries, making the record number of viewers. Starting from this October, we launched distribution of high school football and high school volleyball games. We're moving toward an exciting future for everyone through sports. As for UQ mobile, many choose medium and large capacity plans as data usage increases. The left shows a double-digit growth of the monthly data usage. The right shows the launch of three new plans of UQ mobile in June. New plans have been well accepted and recently, about 70% of customers have chosen Komikomi or Tokutoku.
That's large and medium capacity plans. Very good results. Next, 5G network that supports KDDI's mission to connect. The left indicates how areas expanded along customers' lifeline. We are connecting the everyday. As of the end of October, the area expanded to 47 routes in railway and 384 commercial areas. In particular, 5G is available at all Yamanote Line stations with the number one communication speed, according to a survey. The right shows our initiatives to improve quality. We have been utilizing quality data for each device or each handset. Using a variety of data, we automatically collect and analyze data and implement measures and execute rapid quality improvement. We'll continue to promote area expansion along customers' lifeline and refine communication quality. We are leveraging Starlink, connecting the unconnected.
The left indicates that we are utilizing Starlink for au base stations, creating an area while connecting the extraordinary, including mountains, festivals, and the time of disasters. Moving to the right, in August this year, we concluded a new business alliance with SpaceX for satellite and smartphone direct communication service development. We aim to begin sending and receiving messages in 2024, connecting wherever you see the sky. Next, let me focus on KDDI Group's Financial Business. As you can see, KDDI Group is offering a full range of financial services in support of our customers. The right shows that our customer base in key services has been steadily growing, with au PAY Card members exceeding nine million in October. In addition, au PAY members reached 33.73 million as the end of September. au Jibun Bank accounts expanded to 5.45 million, and au Kabucom Securities account reaching 1.61 million.
Next, about our Financial Business performance. The left shows finance-related value-added ARPU revenue, which was up 13.4% year-on-year, contributing to the increase of value-added ARPU revenues. The center is first-half operating income of au Financial Holdings, which increased at 92.9% year-on-year, excluding the accounting changes in the previous term. A significant growth. Moving to the right, transaction volume of settlement and loans steadily increased to 19.3% year-on-year.
Next is credit cards and banks that drive the growth of the Financial Business. Left side, the number of au PAY Gold Card members, which will be the future growth driver, grew significantly to 970,000 members as of the end of September, which is up by 54% year-on-year, and it exceeded one million this October. Right side, mortgage loan balance was JPY 2.3 trillion, up 56.2% year-on-year. Attractive interest rates led to high customer satisfaction. In addition, the preferential interest rate discount eligibility expanded within the KDDI Group to offer set discount with J:COM NET and TV from September, and CTC's Commufa HIKARI from November 1st. Toward further growth in the Financial Business, we will leverage synergies with telecom to expand our financial customer base. Left side, financial services collaboration is accelerating with au Money Activity Plan.
Since the launch of the plan, the over-the-counter subscription rate has increased respectively, as you can see here. Right side, we will leverage these synergies with telecom to further expand our financial services customer base. KDDI Group's strategy for its Financial Business is a virtuous circle of telecom and finance. From the left, we aim to increase ARPU and reduce churn rate in the telecom business by promoting the attractiveness of au through the au Money Activity Plan and other programs. Furthermore, we will leverage this telecom customer base to accelerate the growth of the Financial Business of the au Financial Group. Next, let me explain DX and LX. First is the business segment results. Left side, operating income for the first half increased by 5.7% year-on-year, in line with our expectation. Next core, especially IoT, drove growth. An existing telecom business also saw an increase in Mobile Communications Revenue.
The impact of fuel price hikes that partially affected the first half compared to the previous year is expected to be gone in the second half. Right side, we are aiming for double-digit year-on-year growth on a full- year basis, with business growth centered on next core, including IoT and data centers, and M&A effects. Next, let me touch on one of KDDI's strengths, IoT. Left side, the number of IoT connections exceeded 37 million for KDDI and 6 million for Soracom in October, for a total of 43 million. Right side, connected cars are driving this growth. We now offer more than 22 million connections globally. We are pleased to announce that we will be extending this service to overseas automakers, and also decided to establish a new company for our overseas connected business for further growth.
In the connected car business, where high market growth is expected, we aim to further expand globally on the strength of our high-quality communication infrastructure, which is chosen by many customers. The data center business is also performing well with its strength, connectivity data center. Left side, Data Center Business Revenues continue to grow strongly at a CAGR of 20.4%. Telehouse, which operates KDDI's data center business, is the world's number one telecom carrier in terms of the number of connections, as you see in this bar graph. Right side, we are leveraging this connectivity strength to further expand our global deployment. In North America, we have successfully completed the acquisition and transfer of Canada's number one connectivity data center, and in Europe, we opened new facilities in Frankfurt and Paris in October to meet growing demand. One of KDDI's unique DX strengths is the utilization of Group assets.
In addition to know-how cultivated in the telecom operations, such as ID platforms and management, KDDI has a variety of group capabilities that support data utilization. Let me introduce a case study on Company A in the real estate industry. On the left, by integrating customer IDs that were different for each business in building a Data Utilization Infrastructure, we are contributing to the marketing sophistication and the identification of new customer needs. As we compete with SIers and other companies, KDDI is receiving recognition for strength of group collaboration and is contributing to the DX of the customer's business. We are also promoting carbon neutrality through our business. Left side, we are switching to renewable energy and conserving energy at our data centers as part of our own efforts. We will accelerate our efforts with the goal of achieving carbon neutrality at all data centers by 2026.
Right side, we will also support our customers' carbon neutrality by utilizing DX. KDDI Green Digital Solution provides one-stop support from visualization of emissions to planning and implementation of reduction measures through partner collaboration. Next is our LX initiative, αU. Left side. Since the launch of αU in March, metaverse for each use case has been emerging one after another and needs are expanding. Sales to corporations have been particularly strong, growing approximately five times year-on-year. B2C domain also has over 1,000 distributors. In this environment, we expanded αU service, which is now in full swing to accelerate the creator economy. αU place offers a new shopping experience through a virtual store that combines the best of both real store and the internet. Lower right, αU metaverse added a karaoke function.
αU live will support creators by streaming artists' performances and songs to the world. Furthermore, by utilizing generative AI, we will create a creator economy full of more diverse content. Generative AI will be utilized to strengthen the foundation for DX and LX growth. Left side, we will first promote the internal use of KDDI AI Chat to enhance our operations. Upper right. In September, we announced our collaboration with Azure OpenAI Service and AWS for business development of generative AI. Based on the user experiences and use cases of 10,000 KDDI employees, we will support the social implementation of generative AI. Lower right. We will also accelerate our human resource strategy along with business streamlining. In addition to shifting human resources to DX and LX areas, we will expand Web3 and AI training to strengthen human resource development that support growth.
Next is MWC Barcelona 2024. KDDI will exhibit for the first time next February. The exhibition theme is enhancing the power to connect. We are preparing our business field under the theme of the power to connect, which is part of our vision. There are fewer Japanese exhibitors in MWC, so we will work with DOCOMO to exhibit in MWC to raise Japan's presence. The specifics of our exhibit will be announced in the future. Lastly, today's summary. Regarding consolidated results, both revenues and income increased in the first half, and we are progressing steadily towards the full-year forecast. While Roam/Roaming revenue declined, income increased thanks to growth in communications ARPU revenues and focus areas. Towards sustainable growth, we will promote efforts to grow communications ARPU revenues and focused areas. Communications ARPU revenues rebounded and initiatives for growth, including au Money Activity Plan, are progressing.
We are promoting 5G area development along customers' lifeline and further refining our communication quality. In financial services, we are expanding our financial customer base through synergy with telecom business and full lineup services. We are strengthening DX and LX efforts to solve issues faced by customers in society. In addition, we will accelerate business development and human resource strategy by promoting the use of generative AI within the company. This concludes my explanation of second quarter results. Thank you very much. Let me take a few moments after this to once again share our thoughts on the NTT Law and how it should be implemented.
egarding the discussion on the review of the NTT Law, LDP is currently discussing it in the project team on the future of the Act on Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, NTT, in the Special Mission Committee on Financial Resources for Defense-Related Expenses, and MIC in Information and Communications Council. As we have said at each hearing, we think it is necessary to review the NTT Law in line with the times. For example, the provisions such as the obligation to disclose research results, authorization of company name change, and the director appointment.
On the other hand, we oppose the abolition of the NTT Law, which jeopardizes the public interests and believe that careful policy discussions should take place on the following three reasons. The first is to ensure fair competition between NTT Group and other operators to prevent further integration and unification of NTT Group. We think this is important. The second is to protect the existing 60 million users to ensure the obligation to provide services nationwide. The third is to ensure the government control over communications that are high public interest to protect NTT's special assets by foreign investment regulations.
If these are not maintained, we are very concerned about the impact on the national interests and people's lives. In addition, on October 19th, 180 entities, including telecommunication operators and local governments, submitted a jointly signed request to the LDP and the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications to oppose the abolition of the NTT Law. This 180 includes parties from various regions in Japan, including many cable TVs. This many people or parties are concerned that the integration and unification of NTT Group will undermine a fair competitive environment. Considering the situation and the public interests, we call for more careful policy discussions. This concludes my explanation.