Govt. to extend financial support for Tmon, WeMakePrice vendors

The South Korean government is ramping up financial aid to address the rapidly growing unpaid bills from Qoo10 Group’s e-commerce subsidiaries, which have now exceeded 800 billion won ($600 million). On Wednesday, the Finance Ministry announced that overdue payments to vendors on Tmon and WeMakePrice, the two struggling online marketplaces owned by Singapore-based Qoo10, have reached 818.8 billion won as of Monday. The unpaid bills have tripled in less than a month due to transaction delay

Aug. 21, 2024

[Photo News] Display of the year

LG Display's Meta Technology 2.0, the company's third-generation OLED technology, has been named the "Korea Display of the Year" at this year's International Meeting on Information Display symposium that kicked off its three-day run on Wednesday in Jejudo. The Meta Technology 2.0 enhances the peak brightness of OLED displays by 40 percent to the industry's brightest 3,000 units. (LG Display)

Aug. 21, 2024

CJ's Bibigo dumplings to hit shelves in New Zealand

CJ CheilJedang is boosting its presence in Oceania with its Bibigo K-food product line, recording a 51 percent on-year increase in its food product sales in the region during the second quarter this year. The company announced Wednesday the fresh launch of Bibigo mandu to New World and Pak'nSave, two major supermarket chains in New Zealand. The new offerings include "Bibigo Homestyle Mandu Pork Dumpling" and "Bibigo Pork & Kimchi Flavoured Dumplings," both of which

Aug. 21, 2024

[Photo News] Cheers to Paralympians

South Korea's national team for the 2024 Paris Paralympics departed for Paris on Wednesday, receiving enthusiastic cheers from supporters, including Hana Financial Group. In this photo, Hana Financial Group Vice Chairman Lee Eun-hyung (second row, fifth from left) stands with Korea Paralympic Committee Chairman Jung Jin-owan (second row, third from left), Bae Dong-hyun, head of the Paralympic national team (second row, fourth from left) and athletes at Incheon International Airport, celeb

Aug. 21, 2024

LG Innotek taps global talent to spur growth

LG Innotek, the advanced materials and components maker affiliated with LG Group, is speeding up efforts to recruit outstanding international students to enhance its global competitiveness. According to the company on Wednesday, a total of 31 international students either from foreign or Korean universities joined this year’s global internship program that was completed earlier this month. Under the five-week program, the students were allocated to diverse business divisions, including res

Aug. 21, 2024

Why Korean Air, Asiana Airlines in rush to shed unused mileage points

South Korea's top two airlines, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines, are recently ramping up efforts to encourage their passengers to use up their mileage in an apparent move to ease financial burdens ahead of their planned merger later this year. Korean Air recently announced a strategic partnership with GS Retail, a local retailer operating GS25 convenience stores, to allow customers to use their Korean Air points at GS25 outlets. Asiana Airlines also plans to launch an online shopping site ex

Aug. 20, 2024

SK in talks to sell specialty gas unit

SK Group, the country's chip-to-energy conglomerate, is considering the sale of its gas supplier SK Specialty, amid the massive reshuffle across its affiliates to focus on future growth drivers. The company is "considering diverse strategies, including the sale of a stake in SK specialty" but "nothing has been decided in detail yet," SK Inc. said through a regulatory filing made Tuesday. SK Inc., the holdings company behind SK Group, owns a 100 percent stake in the gas u

Aug. 20, 2024

As Daum sinks in search, experts doubt AI is solution

Daum, once solidly the No. 2 player in the online search market in Korea, has lost ground to foreign rivals here. Its parent company Kakao is betting heavily on artificial intelligence to revive the ailing portal site, but industry watchers remain skeptical of its strategy, which has yet to be made public. According to web log analysis site Internet Trend on Tuesday, Daum ranked No. 4 in the domestic web search market as of Friday, with its market share falling from 4.41 percent a year ago to 3.

Aug. 20, 2024

Qxpress to split from cash-strapped Qoo10

Singapore-based logistics company Qxpress is set to separate from its financially troubled parent, Qoo10 Group. According to the local investment industry Tuesday, private equity firms that have invested in Qxpress are reportedly gearing up to convert their holdings of exchangeable bonds and convertible bonds into common stock on a large scale, initiating the procedure to take over management control of the logistics subsidiary from Qoo10 to restore normal operations. Investments totaling approx

Aug. 20, 2024

LG Energy Solution targets 2028 for full rollout of cost-saving dry electrode process

LG Energy Solution said Tuesday that it is on track to complete a pilot line for its advanced dry electrode process at its Ochang Energy Plant by the end of this year, with the goal of scaling to full production by 2028. The dry electrode process is a cutting-edge method of making batteries that could transform the way they’re produced. Traditionally, most batteries are made using a wet process. This involves mixing active materials with organic solvents to create a slurry, which is then c

Aug. 20, 2024

Buyout firms build appetite for waste managers in Korea

Overseas private equity firms are increasingly eyeing to acquire a stake in waste management companies here, in an attempt to expand their footprint in the environmental sector. Swedish investment company EQT announced Friday that it is set to acquire the local plastic recycler KJ Environment and its affiliates through a stock purchase agreement. EQT is a Stockholm-based buyout firm with 246 billion euros ($272 billion) in total assets under management. The deal, reportedly worth around 1 trilli

Aug. 19, 2024

[KH Explains] Why Korean metro operators are selling station names

South Korea's subway operators are raising billions of won by selling station co-naming rights to corporations, allowing them to place their names alongside the well-known station names, to make up for substantial operating losses. Seoul Metro, the operator of Subway Line Nos. 1 through 9 within the capital, announced Aug. 12 that it had sold the co-naming rights for several subway stations, including Seongsu Station, Gangnam Station, Yeouinaru Station and Sangbong Station, through a biddin

Aug. 19, 2024

Samsung tops global TV sales, closely chased by Chinese rivals

While Samsung Electronics maintained its No. 1 position as a TV-maker in the first half of this year, Chinese rivals seem to be ramping up their game to close the gap. Market tracker Counterpoint Research said Monday that global TV shipments grew in the April-June period for the first time in four quarters, fueled by an Olympics spending spree. It reached 56 million units in the second quarter this year, up 3 percent on-year. Samsung took the largest share of 15 percent of total shipments, but i

Aug. 19, 2024

SK's top executives convene to discuss AI at Icheon Forum

SK Group kicked off its annual Icheon forum -- one of the biggest gatherings of its top executives -- in Seoul on Monday to explore strategies for expanding the artificial intelligence ecosystem and reinforcing the value of SK Management Systems, the group’s unique philosophy introduced by former SK Chairman Chey Jong-hyun about half a century ago. About 100 guests and speakers from both Korea and abroad, together with Chairman Chey Tae-won, Executive Vice Chairman Chey Jae-won and SK Supe

Aug. 19, 2024

Daewoong’s botulinum toxin debuts in Australia

Daewoong Pharmaceutical, South Korea’s leading drug maker, announced Monday the company officially launched its botulinum toxin, dubbed Nuceiva, in Australia in partnership with a Nasdaq-listed US company Evolus. Oceania is the fifth continent Daewoo Pharmaceutical has entered, after North America, South America, Europe and Asia, with its self-developed botulinum toxin. “Our market penetration into Australia will allow us to build on the momentum of expanding presence in the global m

Aug. 19, 2024

[Photo News] Korean Air spreads wings of charity

Employees from Korean Air and Delta Air Lines pose for a photo after a homebuilding project in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, Wednesday. In collaboration with Habitat for Humanity Korea, the initiative aims to provide much-needed housing for local families. A team of 33 employees from the two airlines worked together on various construction tasks, including brick-laying, roofing and carpentry. Korean Air’s partnership with Habitat for Humanity Korea dates back to 2001, initially fo

Aug. 19, 2024

Per-customer spending at duty-free shops hits 5-year low

The average purchase amount per customer at duty-free shops in South Korea has in the first seven months of this year reached the lowest level in five years, largely due to shifting trends among Chinese tourists and losing their appeal to domestic customers, data showed on Sunday. According to data compiled by the Korean Duty-Free Shop Association, total sales of domestic duty-free companies reached 7.39 trillion won ($5.45 billion) in the first half of the year, up 13.6 percent from 6.5 trillio

Aug. 18, 2024

SK hynix sales more than double in China, US in H1

SK hynix witnessed its sales in China and the US more than double to contribute to an overall growth in revenue in the first half of this year, according to the company’s half-year report Sunday. The world’s second-largest memory chip maker said it logged a total of 28.8 trillion won ($21.26 billion) in sales in the January-June period this year, marking a significant recovery from the 12.3 trillion won the company achieved in the same time last year. In this year's record, 55.4

Aug. 18, 2024

Rebellions, Sapeon Korea merge to challenge Nvidia

Artificial intelligence startup Rebellions and Sapeon Korea officially signed a merger, signaling the birth of the country's first AI unicorn, SK Telecom, Sapeon Korea’s parent company, said Sunday. Rebellions, a fabless chip designer valued at 900 billion won ($664 million), and Sapeon Korea, the AI chip supplier for data centers valued at 550 billion won, have joined hands to carve out a spot in the global AI chip market that is currently dominated by US-based graphic processing uni

Aug. 18, 2024

[Contribution] Boosting trade through digital innovation, global cooperation

By Lee Seong-woo Vice president, Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry "I'll keep changing it for you." This tagline from a global shopping website's free return policy ad recently stirred up controversy here. Despite receiving a warning from the government for its misleading ad, the e-commerce platform managed to climb to second place among the country's most popular shopping apps. But this surge in overseas direct purchases is not all rosy -- it in fact comes

Aug. 18, 2024