S. Korea to extend online religious activity support amid pandemic

South Korea's ICT ministry said Wednesday it will extend support for online religious activities until next month due to continued COVID-19 infections across the country. The Ministry of Science and ICT first introduced support for such activities in April last year, such as providing network data and technical assistance to religious organizations, to discourage in-person meetings to prevent COVID-19 infections. Under the support measures, the ministry also plans to provide 100 gigabytes of d

March 3, 2021

KT, LG Uplus invest in homegrown app market for minority stake

Major South Korean telecom operators KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. said Wednesday they invested a total of 26 billion won ($23.1 million) for a minority stake in the homegrown app market ONE store, bolstering the smaller local rival to Google's Play store. KT has invested 21 billion won for a 3.1 percent stake, while LG Uplus has clinched a 0.7 percent stake with 5 billion won, according to a joint statement from the mobile carriers. The two telecom operators join the existing majority sharehold

March 3, 2021

GC and SK Bioscience lead early vaccines supplies

As South Korea ramps up its COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, two local biopharmaceuticals are leading the supply and distribution of foreign jabs -- Green Cross and SK Bioscience. The state-run Public Procurement Service recently announced that Green Cross has been selected as a local distributor of the mRNA-1237 vaccine developed by US biotech firm Moderna, one of the COVID-19 vaccines that needs to be kept at low temperatures. Green Cross would be in charge of the distribution of the Moder

March 2, 2021

LG Innotek develops Wi-Fi 6E module for seamless car entertainment

LG Innotek said Tuesday it has developed the world’s first automotive Wi-Fi 6E module that would enable passengers to enjoy watching movies or playing games with seamless connections in cars. The electronic parts manufacturing affiliate of LG Group said the automotive Wi-Fi 6E module using 6GHz bandwidth boasts a data transmission speed of 1.2 gigabits per second that is approximately three times faster than the existing Wi-Fi 5. It only takes 2 milliseconds to connect to the network,

March 2, 2021

Naver, Softbank launch Japanese joint venture to take on internet giants

South Korea‘s leading internet portal Naver Corp. and Japanese telecom giant Softbank Corp. have completed a merger of their subsidiaries to tap deeper into the Japanese market with a wide range of services, their joint venture said Monday. 　 Japanese chat app operator LINE, affiliated with Naver, and Softbank’s internet business Yahoo Japan launched a new entity called Z Holdings. 　 The merger creates a $30 billion tech giant with more than 100 million users on a monthly basis acros

March 1, 2021

[Photo News] Samsung Electro-Mechanics introduces new optical zoom

Samsung Electro-Mechanics officials present its folded, 10x optical zoom camera module for smartphones. The company on Monday announced it will begin mass production of the technology, claiming to be the first South Korean maker to do so. Folded zoom technology allows phone makers to minimize the camera’s protrusion in smartphones.  By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)

March 1, 2021

Netflix to start publishing audit report this year

Netflix Korea will disclose its audit reports in March, which would be its first regulatory filing since entering the country in 2016. The local unit of the US media platform giant is incorporated as a limited liability company here, but has become newly subject to disclosure rules applied for publicly traded firms. The change is due to the effectuation last year of the Enforcement Decree of the Act on External Audit of Stock Companies, amended in 2017 to enhance business transparency and p

March 1, 2021

Green Cross affiliate secures $120m investment

Artiva Biotherapeutics, an affiliate of South Korean pharmaceutical firm Green Cross, announced Sunday that it has secured $120 million in Series B financing to develop natural killer (NK) cell-based cancer therapies. Artiva Biotherapeutics said its new investor Venrock Healthcare Capital Partners has led the latest financing. Other new investors include Acuta Capital Partners, Cormorant Asset Management, EcoR1 Capital, Franklin Templeton, according to the company. The injection of fresh cap

Feb. 28, 2021

Celltrion founder’s first son to join boardroom

Celltrion founder and honorary chairman Seo Jung-jin’s eldest son Seo Jin-seok is expected to obtain a seat in the company’s boardroom next month, industry sources said on Sunday. Celltrion is to finalize the appointment of the junior Seo as executive director at the shareholder meeting scheduled on March 26, the sources added. The first son has been serving as senior vice president for Celltrion since 2017. Seo Jin-seok also spearheaded Celltrion Skin Cure, the group’s cos

Feb. 28, 2021

Mobile carriers boost efforts in sustainable energy

South Korean telecom companies are stepping up efforts in sustainable energy projects, as they join the country's broader push for renewable energy and commit more to environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) initiatives. Last Monday, top mobile carrier SK Telecom Co. said it signed a deal with state-backed utility Korea Electric Power Corp. (Kepco) to be supplied with 44.6 gigawatt hours of renewable energy annually as part of its efforts to go green. Along with affiliates under th

Feb. 28, 2021

S. Korea nears 13m 5G users in Jan.

South Korea's 5G subscriptions jumped by over one million for the first time last month to reach nearly 13 million users, data showed Friday. The country's 5G subscriptions reached 12.87 million as of end-January, up 1.02 million from the previous month, according to the data from the Ministry of Science and ICT. The latest data comes amid the popularity of Samsung Electronics Co.'s latest flagship Galaxy S21 smartphones launched last month. The Galaxy S21 series posted 30 percent higher sale

Feb. 26, 2021

Kakao founder says Bill Gates is his role model

Kim Beom-su, the founder of South Korea's top mobile messenger operator Kakao Corp., said Thursday that his role model is Bill Gates and that he wants to further benchmark the steps of the US business magnate following his donation pledge. In an online conference with employees, Kim, who recently pledged to donate more than half of his assets worth over 10 trillion won ($9 billion), shared his ideas of donation and the company's future. "My role model for solving social problems is Bill G

Feb. 25, 2021

Science journal Nature highlights Korea’s next-gen solar cell on front page

A next-generation solar cell developed by South Korean research team made the cover of leading science journal Nature, according to the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology on Thursday. The institute’s research team led by Seo Jang-won developed a perovskite solar cell that demonstrates an efficiency rate of 25.2 percent. The efficiency rate indicates the proportion of solar energy converted into usable energy. Perovskites are easily synthesized compounds with an orthorhombic

Feb. 25, 2021

LG AI Research unveils first AI achievement

LG Group unveiled its first achievement in artificial intelligence research conducted by the group’s AI research arm. The South Korean conglomerate announced two academic papers on explainable AI and continual learning in collaboration with University of Toronto, through the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. Explainable AI, co-researched by a team led by Professor Konstantinos Plataniotis, refers to a technology that easily explains a result of its research to

Feb. 25, 2021

Overseas employees worried about LG’s plans for smartphone biz

LG Electronics’ potential plan to discontinue the smartphone business would have ripple effects on jobs in its overseas production bases, persons working for LG outside Korea said. 　 According to workers assembling LG phones at the company’s Brazil factory, local employees are paying keen attention to the circulating rumors about the Korean vendor’s plans for the struggling phone business. “The latest reports about LG’s sale of its smartphone business have made u

Feb. 25, 2021

Apple seeks greater presence in Korea with 2nd Apple Store

Apple will open its second Apple Store in South Korea this Friday in a move to expand its presence in the main turf of archrival Samsung Electronics. Called Apple Yeouido, the second Apple Store is located on the L1 floor of IFC Mall in Yeouido, western Seoul, which is the epicenter of finance, politics and broadcasting. It is about the same size as the company’s first store, in Garosugil in southern Seoul, which opened in January 2018 and has become a must-visit spot for Apple fans

Feb. 24, 2021

S. Korea expands public Wi-Fi availability

South Korea's ICT ministry said Wednesday it made over 15,000 new public Wi-Fi service zones available across the country and in buses last year, bringing the total locations with free public Wi-Fi to over 57,000. The Ministry of Science and ICT said the public can access free Wi-Fi in 28,132 public locations, such as bus stations, public facilities and parks, and also in 29,100 buses. By region, there are 2,529 public Wi-Fi locations in Seoul, with 4,358 locations in the surrounding Gyeonggi

Feb. 24, 2021

Samsung starts mass-production of power-efficient SSD for data centers

Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday it has started mass-production of a power-efficient solid state drive (SSD) for data centers that also boasts enhanced security solutions. The South Korean tech giant said PM9A3E1.S is the industry's first data center-use SSD product based on sixth-generation V-NAND chips. It supports the standards of Open Compute Project (OCP), an organization that sets hardware and software standards in data centers. Samsung, the world's leading memory chip producer, sa

Feb. 24, 2021

Audio social media app Clubhouse takes off in S. Korea

Clubhouse, an audio social media app that has generated buzz worldwide, has been gaining popularity in South Korea as popular celebrity users, from K-pop artists to politicians, join the invitation-only platform. The iPhone social media app, in which users enter rooms to chat with one another by voice, reached 195,000 downloads in South Korea as of Feb. 16, according to mobile analytics company App Annie on Tuesday. While the app, developed by US-based startup Alpha Exploration Co., ranked at

Feb. 23, 2021

Samsung launches ‘human eye-like’ image sensor ISOCELL GN2

Samsung Electronics announced on Tuesday it is launching the advanced image sensor ISOCELL GN2 with a more true-to-life auto focus function that makes the microchip operate similar to human eyes. ISOCELL is Samsung’s image sensor brand developed by its System LSI Business. Samsung, which is on a path to expand its presence in the system-on-chip market, including the image sensor sector, has been increasing efforts to bolster its product lineup. The newest ISOCELL GN2 boasts a new 5

Feb. 23, 2021