SK Telecom enters AI-based video security business

SK Telecom Co., the country's largest mobile carrier, said Wednesday it joined hands with its security subsidiary ADT Caps Co. and local video management solution company Innodep Inc. to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-based video analysis services. Under an agreement, the three companies will develop such services to effectively manage video surveillance systems in the growing local market in the private and public sectors, according to SK Telecom. The mobile carrier said it will optimiz

Feb. 17, 2021

Eyes on Samsung heir’s investment decision from jail

It has been four weeks since Samsung Group’s de-facto chief Lee Jae-yong has been jailed for bribery, and all eyes are on what large-scale investment plans are to come from the imprisoned Samsung Electronics vice chairman as visitation restrictions are set to be lifted. According to industry sources on Tuesday, the Samsung scion has been moved to a regular cell at Seoul Detention Center on Sunday, after a four-week quarantine to prevent the spread of COVID-19 within the facility. In t

Feb. 16, 2021

'Google to reap up to W150b in additional profit a year from app store fees’

Google’s revenue from app store fees in South Korea could increase by more than 150 billion won a year when the company’s billing policy changes take effect later this year, a local lawmaker said Tuesday. In September last year, Google announced that the company would enforce a 30 percent commission on all in-app purchases of digital content from its app store, starting in October, 2021. Google has so far charged fees on game content sales only. Rep. Park Sung-joong of the oppos

Feb. 16, 2021

Scientists develop AI system capable of reading human emotions

A team of researchers led by professor Kim Hyun-bum from Incheon National University have developed a human emotion detection system using fifth-generation networks and artificial intelligence. Researchers claim the virtual emotion detection system called 5G-I-VEmoSYS can recognize at least five kinds of emotion -- joy, pleasure, a neutral state, sadness and anger -- through body movements and other signals. “Emotions are a critical characteristic of human beings and separate humans fr

Feb. 16, 2021

Netflix's subscriber numbers surge in Korea due mainly to pandemic

Global streaming giant Netflix saw its subscriber numbers soar in South Korea last year due to changes in people's media usage patterns caused by the coronavirus pandemic, a report said Monday. According to the report by market research firm Nielsen Korea, the monthly unique visitors to Netflix in South Korea in November last year surged 64.2 percent, compared with January of the same year. Netflix also ranked second after YouTube in the ranking of mobile video operators. The US-based company

Feb. 15, 2021

Local research team develops human cochlea-like acoustic sensor

South Korean researchers have developed an artificial intelligence-based acoustic sensor that resembles the human cochlea, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology said Monday. The research team, led by KAIST professors Lee Keon-jae and Wang Hee-seung, said they used an ultrathin piezoelectric membrane to mimic the basilar membrane in the cochlea, which acts as an analyzer to translate frequency of sounds. Equipped with machine learning-based speaker recognition, the new acoust

Feb. 15, 2021

Foldable phone market starts to take shape

Expectations are high on the foldable smartphone market’s growth as multiple new models are scheduled to be rolled out this year from some of tech‘s biggest names -- including Apple. According to industry sources on Monday, the world’s three biggest smartphone vendors – Samsung Electronics, Apple and Huawei – are preparing to debut new foldable gadgets that feature advancements from initial foldable devices. Huawei will unveil its third foldable smartphone, the

Feb. 15, 2021

IoT subscriptions top 10m in S. Korea last year: data

South Korea's internet-of-things (IoT) device subscriptions hit over 10 million last year on the back of growing use of connected cars and remote control services. As of the end of last year, the number of mobile connections to such devices stood at 10.05 million, up around 2 million from the previous year, according to data from the Ministry of Science and ICT. IoT devices range from connected vehicles to home appliances that exchange data with other devices over the internet, and they can pr

Feb. 15, 2021

S. Korea’s top streamers make W671m a year

South Korea’s top 1 percent of streamers earned an average of 671 million won in 2019, according to data released Sunday by the National Tax Service. 　 According to a report by Yang Kyung-sook of the ruling Democratic Party here, the top 1 percent of tax-registered streamers by income, or 27 individuals, made a total of 18.1 billion won, accounting for around 21 percent of the total income made by all local one-person media creators registered with the tax office. The number of one-perso

Feb. 14, 2021

Nexon provides all-time high dividends to its parent company in 2020

Nexon, South Korea’s largest game developer, has paid a record amount of cash in dividends to its parent company NXC after posting all-time high earnings last year, according to the Japanese electronic disclosure system Sunday. According to the Electronic Disclosure for Investors‘ NETwork, Nexon provided a dividend of 29.9 billion yen (320 billion won) to its parent company last year. In total, Nexon provided 61.4 billion yen of dividends through last year, up around 30 percent fr

Feb. 14, 2021

Tough settlement talks await SK Innovation

With a defeat after a two-year legal battle against LG Energy Solution in the United States, the only desirable option for SK Innovation to minimize impact seems to be settling with their domestic archrival, according to industry sources on Sunday. In a final ruling made by the US International Trade Commission on Wednesday, SK Innovation was slapped with a 10-year ban on importing lithium-ion battery products to the US, with a grace period up to four years, for stealing trade secrets from LG.

Feb. 14, 2021

Telcos pin hope on further 5G adoption this year

South Korean mobile carriers are aiming for mass user migration to 5G networks this year after failing to meet their subscriber targets in 2020 amid the pandemic. The country ended last year with a total 11.85 million 5G subscribers, with SK Telecom Co., the country's largest wireless carrier, leading the pack with 5.48 million users, followed by KT Corp. at 3.62 million and LG Uplus Corp. at 2.75 million, according to ICT ministry data. The total figure fell short of initial forecasts of arou

Feb. 14, 2021

Naver, Kakao employees pocket 'bonuses' amid brisk performance

Naver and Kakao -- the two major South Korean tech companies -- have recently provided "bonuses," such as stock options and shares, to their employees amid record-breaking performances    Annual sales of Naver -- South Korea's top internet portal operator -- and Kakao -- the operator of the country's top mobile messenger, KakaoTalk -- both jumped to all-time highs of 5.3 trillion won ($4.8 billion) and 4.15 trillion won, respectively, in 2020. The two tech firms have been c

Feb. 13, 2021

Electroacupuncture can improve sleep, study suggests

Insomnia is one of the most common sleep disorders. According to the National Health Insurance Service, some 640,000 people visited hospitals due to insomnia in 2019. The number of such visits has steadily increased over the past five years. There might be hope. A recent study has found that electroacupuncture can help people suffering from insomnia. Used often in Korean traditional medicine, electroacupuncture involves administering small electric currents using thin needles inserted into

Feb. 11, 2021

ITC backs LG Energy in trade secret dispute, issues 10-year import ban on SK

A US trade panel on Wednesday ruled in favor of South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution Ltd. in a trade secret case and issued a 10-year import ban on some lithium-ion battery products by SK Innovation. The US International Trade Commission affirmed a preliminary ruling delivered in February 2020 to support LG's claims that SK used stolen trade secrets to develop its electric vehicle batteries. The ITC issued "a limited exclusion order" for 10 years to ban import of s

Feb. 11, 2021

Microsoft CEO says big tech needs clearer laws on online speech

Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said social-media services like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube need clearer laws and rules to govern whether controversial “Unilateral action by individual companies in democracies like ours is just not Microsoft doesn’t currently run a consumer social media service, but it is among cloud-computing In the past several years, antitrust regulators have ramped up investigations into the market power of large technology companies, just

Feb. 10, 2021

[News Focus] Record earnings, but Kakao, Naver can’t just celebrate

South Korea’s two online giants -- Naver and Kakao -- had the best year ever in 2020, benefiting from the rise of e-commerce and the contactless trend. Yet, as the pain of those less fortunate grows, they may have to part with some of their profit if policymakers push ahead with an unprecedented profit-sharing plan they have vowed to introduce. Kakao, the company behind the country’s near-ubiquitous messaging app KakaoTalk, on Tuesday reported a whopping 120.5 percent on-year jum

Feb. 9, 2021

Video calls to be free during Lunar New Year amid pandemic

Video calls will be free of charge during the Lunar New Year holiday to encourage virtual family meetings, the ICT ministry said Tuesday, as the country's efforts to curb new coronavirus cases limit in-person contact. The Ministry of Science and ICT said the country's three major telecom operators -- SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. -- agreed to not charge for video calls made over the upcoming holiday period, which falls on Feb. 11-14 this year, for all smartphone users in the count

Feb. 9, 2021

Google to comply with ‘Netflix Law’

The South Korean government has asked US tech giant Google to take preemptive measures to ensure stable services, while demanding the company notify local users in Korean language should there be service errors. Google will also operate a customer service space through which users can ask questions. South Korea’s ICT Ministry announced Monday its follow up measures regarding the global outage of Google’s services in December, during which users were unable to connect to Google pr

Feb. 8, 2021

LG smartphones sold for halved prices before announcement on fate of mobile unit

The last batch of smartphones by LG Electronics -- LG Velvet and LG Wing released last year -- are being sold with massive discounts and subsidies through mobile carriers before the company’s final decision on its planned sale of the smartphone business. According to the telecom industry Monday, the actual cost of buying an LG Wing, a dual-display smartphone released last September, has been reduced to around 400,000 won ($357) from 1.09 million won, amid sluggish sales.  Actual p

Feb. 8, 2021