Mobile carriers raise severance pay to slim down workforce

Mobile carriers are strengthening their severance packages to encourage early retirement amid efforts to renew their business portfolio and restructure stagnant workforce. Kicking off voluntary redundancy, KT Corp., the country's second-largest telecommunication company, recently raised the maximum severance pay for voluntary redundancy, from 330 million won ($238,000) to 430 million won. Earlier this month, the mobile carrier decided to establish two new affiliates, KT OSP and KT P&M,

Oct. 30, 2024

TGS seeks to expand e-commerce presence in Philippines

South Korean retail and finance company TGS Holdings announced Tuesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Philippines-based Glyphstudios to expand e-commerce and mobile payment services in the Southeast Asian market. As part of the agreement, TGS Holdings will launch a subsidiary called Woori Ventures Group to oversee its e-commerce operations in the Philippines. This deal, finalized last Wednesday with one of the Philippines’ largest mobile services and content provider

Oct. 30, 2024

Leadership reshuffle looms as Samsung struggles to remain atop

Samsung Electronics, facing challenges from its smaller rivals, is expected to carry out a major personnel reshuffle later this year, according to industry sources Monday. The world’s largest maker of memory chips and smartphones has been battling growing competition at home and abroad. When it comes to artificial intelligence chips, for instance, it has been outpaced by its crosstown rival SK hynix, as it failed to secure an earlier edge. “Samsung’s losses in HBM and foundry a

Oct. 28, 2024

SK chief assumes leadership of APEC CEO Summit

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, who doubles as chair of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, will preside over the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, the largest gathering of business leaders in the region which is to be held next year in Korea, the business lobby said Sunday, upon the launch of the preparatory committee of the upcoming event. The APEC CEO Summit will be held on the sidelines of the annual APEC Summit, where 21 heads of state and some 1,000 businesspeople join. Gye

Oct. 27, 2024

[Contribution] Future-oriented partnership between Korea, Singapore

By Lee Seong-woo, Vice president of Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry Living up to its reputation as a “small but mighty” country, Singapore has been an economic hub of Asia and is home to the Asian headquarters of many global companies. Its business-friendly investment environment, talented workforce and strategic location have made it a center of the Asian economy. The government of Singapore offers nondiscriminatory investment incentives to both local and foreign companies,

Oct. 24, 2024

Samsung mobile chief upbeat on Galaxy S24 sales

Samsung Electronics's mobile business chief Roh Tae-moon has pinned high hopes on the latest flagship Galaxy S24 series to drive up the company's smartphone business this year overall. Speaking to the employees in a regular town hall meeting on Wednesday, Roh reiterated the company's goal of creating an "ecosystem of Galaxy AI" to introduce the artificial intelligence model to all of its mobile devices, according to industry sources. "Galaxy has led the way into the

Oct. 24, 2024

SK hynix reports earnings surprise in Q3 on AI chip boom

SK hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chip maker by revenue, said Thursday it logged all-time high profit, sales and net income in the July-September period this year, riding on the robust demand for its artificial intelligence chips. The company reported a quarterly operating profit of 7.03 trillion won ($5.1 billion), compared with a loss of 1.79 trillion won a year ago. The figure is higher than the consensus of 6.76 trillion won by local analysts provided by market intelligence F

Oct. 24, 2024

LG Electronics unveils 2030 vision to boost corporate value

LG Electronics on Tuesday announced a mid-to-long-term plan to boost the company’s corporate value, with a goal to achieve sales of 100 trillion won ($72.6 billion) by 2030. The new announcement comes about two months after it said it would participate in the government’s Value-up Program, being the first to do so among the country’s top 10 conglomerates. In a regulatory filing, the home appliance giant reiterated its Triple 7 goal, under which the company aims to see a 7 perce

Oct. 22, 2024

SKT launches web version of AI assistant A.

SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest wireless carrier by membership, launched the web version of its multi-agent large language model service A. on Tuesday. A. was first introduced as a mobile application, as a personal AI assistant supporting users in managing their daily routines with essential functions including calendar, tasks and routine checkers. Now the AI service is accessible on various PC browsers, such as Chrome and Safari on PCs and tablet PCS, allowing users to use the service o

Oct. 22, 2024

Kumho Tire launches digital twin system in R&D push

South Korean tiremaker Kumho Tire announced Tuesday that it has officially launched its tire digital twin system, marking a major step in the company’s efforts to digitalize its tire development process. Shifting from traditional physical testing to virtual tire development, Kumho Tire said the new system enables the automatic design of multiple tire versions using digital data and big data-based performance predictions. With the help of artificial intelligence, the system then selects the

Oct. 22, 2024

Kakao’s AI service Kanana aims for ‘next KakaoTalk’

South Korean IT giant Kakao on Tuesday unveiled its new conversational artificial intelligence service Kanana at the annual developers conference dubbed "if kakaoAI 2024." “Kakao’s key competitive advantage lies in connecting relationships and in the era of generative AI. We aim to offer hyper-personalized AI services that consider individuals’ context and emotions in various relationships and conversations,” CEO Chung Shin-a said in her keynote speech at the ev

Oct. 22, 2024

SK hynix CEO visits Europe to explore chip partnerships

SK hynix CEO Kwak Noh-jung recently traveled to Europe to explore future chip technologies, meeting with key officials of the Interuniversity Micro Electronics Center, according to industry sources Monday. During his visit to the IMEC, headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, Kwak met with his counterpart Luc Van den Hove and Max Mirgoli, executive vice president in charge of worldwide strategic partnerships, at IMEC, among others. “It is fantastic when partnerships are based on friendship and tr

Oct. 21, 2024

[Herald Interview] Fairfax County seeks to attract Korea’s emerging tech firms

Aiming to reinforce its reputation as the “Silicon Valley of the East,” Fairfax County, located near Washington, DC in the US state of Virginia, is seeking to bring in more Korean tech firms specializing in emerging technologies such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence and aerospace, David Kelley, the vice president of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, said. "Fairfax County likes to pride itself on innovation, and especially innovation around emerging

Oct. 21, 2024

Naver’s AI research recognized at global natural language processing conference

South Korean internet giant Naver announced Friday that a number of its research papers have been accepted at the annual Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing, one of the world’s leading natural language processing conferences, amidst the company’s ongoing efforts to advance AI-driven technologies. “We are proud to see our search technology being acknowledged on the global stage,” said Kim Kwang-hyun, head of Naver’s Search and Data Platform Division. &ld

Oct. 18, 2024

Samsung Display showcases latest OLED at Ferrari Finali Mondiali

Samsung Display has joined the Ferrari Finali Mondiali, the iconic closing event of the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli to showcase its high-quality organic light-emitting diode panels including the foldable models, the company said Friday. During the event held Oct. 17-20 in Enzo and Dino Ferrari International Circuit in Imola, Italy, Samsung is displaying its latest OLED products in a 120-square-meter showroom designed to resemble a modern museum. Among the products are a 34-inch display with

Oct. 18, 2024

Samsung to launch slimmer foldable phone next week

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest smartphone maker by shipment, is expected to launch its thinnest foldable phone next week to reinforce its footing in the global foldable smartphone market where Chinese rivals are edging their way up. Releasing a video invitation on Thursday, Samsung said it would introduce a new product on Monday and set the market launch date on Oct. 25. While the smartphone maker did not reveal what the product will be, it gave away a hint in the video showing o

Oct. 17, 2024

Samsung to debut advanced DRAM chip for AI next year

Samsung Electronics, the world's largest memory chip maker, said Thursday it has developed the industry’s first 24-gigabit GDDR7 DRAM, set for a market debut early next year. Compared to the previous 16Gb GDDR7 DRAM, the new chip has improved capacity, performance and power efficiency, the company said. Samsung applied 12 nanometer-class processing technology to increase cell density within the same package size, achieving a 50 percent increase in capacity compared to the predecessor.

Oct. 17, 2024

ASML's lukewarm outlook pulls down Samsung, SK shares

Shares of Korean chipmakers fell on Wednesday in a bearish market as major chip-related stocks worldwide declined following a gloomy 2025 forecast from semiconductor bellwether ASML. ASML, a Dutch company that makes the world’s most advanced chip-making equipment, reported its booking was half the orders the market expected in its quarterly earnings, and saw its shares plunge 16 percent to close at 668.10 euros ($727) in Amsterdam. Other chip stocks also declined, with Nvidia falling 4.5 p

Oct. 16, 2024

KB Kookmin Bank to launch ‘Starbucks Account’ for coffee aficionados

KB Kookmin Bank and Starbucks Korea on Wednesday announced a partnership to launch a bank account product exclusively for local devotees of the US coffee chain. Set for launch in early 2025, the new partnership will introduce the first-ever "Starbucks Account," a savings account tailored to Starbucks customers, offering unique benefits that blend banking services with daily coffee purchases. Additionally, KB Kookmin Bank’s digital certificate service will be integrated into the S

Oct. 16, 2024

RIAD launches new AI-powered platform for booking group travel

RIAD Corporation, a South Korean travel startup specializing in B2B trade, has launched a new AI-powered trading platform called RIA, aimed at automating the coordination of group bookings between hotels and travel agents. The new platform allows business clients to save time when handling group bookings, streamlining the process from days of back-and-forth communication to just minutes. “Traditionally, the group booking process relied heavily on analogue methods such as emails, phone call

Oct. 16, 2024