Mobility firms invested by SK Holdings prepare for IPOs

SK Holdings’ equity investment in Grab, the Southeast Asian equivalent to Uber, is receiving attention as the ride-hailing app prepares for an initial public offering on the tech-heavy US bourse Nasdaq. According to the investment-focused holdings firm of SK Group, the Singapore-based startup behind the ride-hailing and food delivery app is planning a floatation via a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Grab’s market value is estimated at around $39.6 billion after it

April 14, 2021

Google Korea's 2020 revenue hits W220b

Google Korea saw its revenue reach more than 200 billion won ($178.65 million) last year in the first disclosure of its financial statement in the country, a regulatory filing showed Wednesday. Google Korea, which operates under Google International LLC, said in the filing that its sales stood at 220.14 billion won last year, up 3.66 percent from the previous year, while operating profit reached 15.59 billion won, up 52.95 percent over the same period. The company said most of its sales came f

April 14, 2021

Chubb launches Chubb LifeBalance, a 360-degree health and well-being app

Chubb has released Chubb LifeBalance in Korea, a 360-degree personalized and well-being application that encourages people to incorporate healthy routines into their lifestyle. Chubb LifeBalance comprehensively assesses the lifestyle of users and provides a holistic view of health to help them to objectively measure and manage their own health condition. It tracks and records over 115 different activities, including yoga, swimming, boxing and meditation, and lets users invite their friends an

April 14, 2021

Samsung to introduce new Galaxy laptops this month

Samsung Electronics Co. is expected to introduce new Galaxy laptops later this month as the South Korean tech giant eyes to expand sales of notebooks amid the pandemic-induced stay-at-home trend. Samsung on Wednesday sent media invitations to its Galaxy Unpacked online event scheduled to take place on April 28, saying "Discover the most powerful Galaxy yet." Samsung, the world's largest smartphone producer, did not reveal which products will be unveiled at the event, but industry obs

April 14, 2021

Pressure on Samsung as Biden says he wants plants in US, not China

It’s official: US President Joe Biden wants semiconductor chips to be produced in his own country, not China, posing a dilemma for foreign chipmakers such as Samsung Electronics, which are torn between two strategically important markets. Samsung, the only South Korean participant in Monday’s White House meeting on chips, is the world’s No. 1 producer of memory chips used in computers, smartphones and a growing list of smart devices. It is the world’s No. 2 in the found

April 13, 2021

No Novavax shots until safety proven: government

South Korea has cleared potential roadblocks for the local production of Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine, but it will have to wait until the drug’s safety is proven, government officials said Tuesday. “We’re not considering putting (Novavax shots) to use prior to the authorization process,” Baek Young-ha, who is in charge of the government’s vaccine procurement, told a press briefing Tuesday. The official also sought to clarify an earlier comment by Health Min

April 13, 2021

Samsung expands dominance in smartphone memory market in 2020: report

Samsung Electronics Co. expanded its dominance in the global smartphone memory market in 2020, a report showed Tuesday, as it represented nearly half of the industry. Samsung, the world's largest supplier of DRAM and NAND chips, accounted for 49 percent of the global smartphone memory market last year, up 2 percentage points from a year earlier, according to a report from industry tracker Strategy Analytics. Samsung was followed by its smaller South Korean rival SK hynix Inc. with a 21 perce

April 13, 2021

Samsung, LG among top 5 players in Europe's smart home market in Q4: report

South Korea's two major electronics firms -- Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. -- were among the top five players in the European smart home market in the fourth quarter of last year, a report showed Tuesday, as they push to increase connected devices amid the pandemic-induced stay-at-home trend. Samsung was the third-largest vendor of smart home devices, including smart TVs, smart speakers, thermostats and home security products, in Europe after shipping 4.91 million units in th

April 13, 2021

Netflix's 2020 revenue more than doubles in S. Korea

Netflix saw its revenue more than double in South Korea last year as the video streaming giant enjoyed rapid user growth amid the pandemic, its filing showed Tuesday.  Netflix Services Korea Ltd.'s sales last year stood at 415.45 billion won ($356 million), up 123.5 percent from the previous year, while operating profit reached 8.82 billion won, up 295 percent over the cited period, according to the filing. Most of the company's sales last year came from user streaming fees, which stood

April 13, 2021

Samsung maintains 2nd spot in chip revenue behind Intel in 2020: data

Samsung Electronics Co. maintained the status as the world's second-largest semiconductor vendor by revenue last year, industry data showed Tuesday, amid rising demand of memory products on the back of the pandemic-induced stay-at-home economy. Samsung's chip business logged $57.7 billion in revenue last year, up 10.2 percent from a year earlier, to capture 12.4 percent of the global semiconductor market, according to data from US-based research firm Gartner. Intel Corp. defended its top pos

April 13, 2021

South Korea pays keen attention to upcoming US semiconductor bill

The South Korean government and experts in the semiconductor industry are paying close attention to a meeting hosted by the White House on Monday in the US.  According to Seoul-based government officials and industry experts, concerns exist about recent moves by the US government to reinforce its chip industry in terms of Korea’s industrial competitiveness and Korean chipmakers’ global operations.  The moves by the Biden administration -- the review of America’s sem

April 12, 2021

Institut Pasteur Korea partners with Genexine for global clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccine

Institut Pasteur Korea announced Monday that it had signed an agreement with Genexine to offer support for the latter’s global clinical studies of COVID-19 vaccine candidate GX-19N. IPK said it would help Genexine conduct clinical studies of GX-19N and examine the efficacy of GX-19N against COVID-19 variants. According to Genexine, the vaccine candidate, which contains an antigen targeting the coronavirus’ nucleocapsid protein, is potentially effective against COVID-19 variants.

April 12, 2021

Samsung BioLogics, Kakao and Hyundai Motor compete to join KOSPI's top 5 club

Samsung BioLogics, Kakao and Hyundai Motor are competing to be the fifth-largest company in terms of market capitalization in South Korea. According to Korea Exchange on Monday, Samsung BioLogics is currently holding fifth place on the country’s main bourse Kospi, with a market cap of 51.7 trillion won ($45.9 billion). Kakao and Hyundai Motor closely follow with 49.5 trillion won and 48.2 trillion won, respectively. Competition for the fifth spot has recently escalated after Kakao&rsqu

April 12, 2021

SK Telecom launches AR app in US

SK Telecom Co., South Korea's largest mobile carrier, said Monday it launched its augmented reality (AR) app in the United States as it seeks widespread adoption of the immersive technology. The mobile carrier said it released its Jump AR app, previously only available in South Korea and Hong Kong, on Google's Play store in the United States, allowing American Android users to experience its mixed reality content, such as taking photos with celebrity avatars. SK Telecom said it also released a

April 12, 2021

SK Innovation reaches W2tr settlement in battery row with LG Energy Solution

South Korean battery rivals LG Energy Solution and SK Innovation reached a 2 trillion won ($1.78 billion) settlement in their two-year-long legal dispute over battery technologies, the two companies announced Sunday. SK will pay 1 trillion won in cash and 1 trillion in royalties to the rival as compensation for its theft of lithium-ion battery technologies. LG, in exchange, will drop all legal action against SK both in Korea and abroad. This allows SK to avert a punishment by a US court that w

April 11, 2021

Samsung invited to White House meeting on chip shortage

Samsung Electronics, South Korea’s top tech giant, is among 19 global semiconductor manufacturers invited to a White House meeting to be held virtually on Monday. The CEO summit, according to US officials, will discuss a chip supply shortage, especially for those used in vehicles. “On Monday afternoon, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and NEC Director Brian Deese, joined by Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, will host a virtual CEO Summit on Semiconductor and Supply Chai

April 11, 2021

[Herald Interview] Given choice, AstraZeneca vaccine ‘might not be preferable’ for young people

If vaccines other than AstraZeneca’s are available for young people, South Korean health authorities may want to consider an alternative, said Dr. Jean-Louis Excler, a vaccinologist at the International Vaccine Institute, as more countries limit the use of the vaccine to older people over blood clot concerns. Excler, who is also part of the vaccine safety working group within COVAX, a global body that promotes equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, said in an interview with The Korea He

April 9, 2021

KT to develop music streaming service in Vietnam

KT Corp., a South Korean telecom giant, said Friday it has clinched business ties with a Vietnamese cable network to cooperate in developing a music streaming platform in the Southeast Asian country. Under the memorandum of understanding, KT and Vietnam Television Cable, a subsidiary of state broadcaster Vietnam Television, plan to design a music streaming platform and cooperate in K-pop music distribution and the management of intellectual property. KT said it plans to provide key technology

April 9, 2021

Samsung unveils upgraded smart tracking tag with UWB tech

Samsung Electronics Co. on Friday unveiled its upgraded smart tracking tag leveraging advanced wireless communication technologies that can locate people's lost items with better accuracy. The Galaxy SmartTag+ uses both Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and ultra-wideband (UWB) solutions, according to Samsung. The latest product will be available beginning next Friday though its launch schedule will vary by market. Its predecessor, Galaxy SmartTag, which was launched in January, only used BLE techn

April 9, 2021

S. Korean O2O services grow fast in COVID-19 pandemic

  South Korea’s online-to-offline, or O2O, services marked rapid growth amid the booming stay-at-home economy last year during the COVID-19 pandemic, government data showed Thursday. According to data from the Ministry of Science and ICT, the total trading volume created through local O2O services for the whole of last year reached 126 trillion won ($112.83 billion), up 29.6 percent from 97 trillion won a year earlier. The increase largely stemmed from expanded transactions in the

April 8, 2021