[KH Explains] Kakao Mobility seeks breakthrough in Europe amid rising scrutiny at home

Kakao Mobility, the operator of South Korea’s leading taxi-hailing service Kakao T, seems to be seeking new opportunities in Europe as it faces growing scrutiny here. According to industry sources on Monday, the company is likely to submit its final bid to acquire a stake of around 80 percent in German mobility service provider FreeNow as early as this week. The exact deal size was not revealed, but sources predict it to amount to some hundreds of millions of dollars. If the company wins

Nov. 20, 2023

Samsung chief departs for Europe

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong took off to Britain over the weekend to join a presidential delegation, according to industry sources on Monday, as he faces a decisive ruling that could possibly lead to a leadership vacuum for the global tech giant. Lee is taking part in the presidential economic delegation involving other conglomerate chiefs including Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Euisun and LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo. SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, who doubles as the head of the

Nov. 20, 2023

[Photo News] LG ShoeCare for sneakerheads

LG Electronics displayed its LG Styler ShoeCase and ShoeCare at ComplexCon 2023, a curated festival of culture, fashion and music, held in Long Beach, United States in the weekends, the company said on Monday. The tech giant said Jeff Staple, the founder of menswear brand Staple Pigeon, visited its showroom set up at the festival where rare and unique sneakers are sold as special edition. LG Styler ShoeCase a space-friendly solution for shoe storage and showcasing sneakers. (LG Electronics)

Nov. 20, 2023

[Herald Interview] SK-backed Sapeon to take on Nvidia

Sapeon, a fabless startup backed by South Korean telecom-to-chip conglomerate SK Group, has come up with a more powerful and efficient artificial intelligence chip to compete head-on with US chip giant Nvidia, which enjoys a near monopoly in the soaring market for data center graphics processors. “We‘re focused on being very good at (developing) AI inference (neural processing units) and we’ll take a part of the expanding (AI chip market),” Sapeon Chief Technology Officer

Nov. 20, 2023

NCSoft to tear loose from Lineage: CEO

BUSAN -- NCSoft CEO Kim Taek-jin declared the company's strategic shift from its traditional roots in Lineage, its series of massively multiplayer online role-playing games -- or MMORPGs -- to diverse gaming genres, responding to a downturn in earnings and a shift in gamer preferences. The CEO made this announcement during an unexpected appearance at the company's booth at G-Star 2023 gaming expo held last week in Busan. "Our objective is to delve into a multitude of gaming genres

Nov. 19, 2023

Zepeto metaverse plans to support Apple Vision Pro

BUSAN -- Naver Z, the metaverse subsidiary of South Korean internet giant Naver, is planning a version of Zepeto for Apple's first wearable headset device, embracing the US tech behemoth's concept of spatial computing. “We are preparing to showcase something special for headsets such as Apple's Vision Pro," Lee Seung-won, Nazer Z's developer relations director told The Korea Herald during a marketing talk at G-Star Game Conference 2023, part of the G-Star gaming ex

Nov. 19, 2023

Prosecutors seek 5-year sentence for Samsung chief over fraud connected to 2015 merger

The prosecution on Friday demanded five years in prison for Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong on charges of stock price rigging and accounting fraud connected to the controversial 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates. Prosecutors also requested a fine of 500 million won ($387,000) for Lee during the final hearing at the Seoul Central District Court. Lee is charged with stock price rigging, breach of duty and accounting fraud in the course of the controversial 2015 merger of two Samsung

Nov. 17, 2023

Yoon attends IPEF summit to discuss regional economic collaboration

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol attended the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework summit in San Francisco on Thursday, where leaders of the 14 member countries discussed strengthening regional economic cooperation. Yoon is in the US for a three-day trip to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and took part in other multilateral and bilateral meetings, including the IPEF summit hosted by US President Joe Biden. In 2022, the Biden administration launched the IPEF in an effort to str

Nov. 17, 2023

SK hynix wins 2023 R&D 100 Awards

SK hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chip maker, won this year’s R&D 100 Awards, also known as "the Oscars of innovation," with its cutting-edge Key Value Computational Storage Drive (KV-CSD), the company said Friday. Among the 100 winners of the 2023 R&D 100 Awards, which recognizes the most promising products or technologies that will bring change to the industry, SK hynix marked its name in the IT/Electrical category. “Once commercialized, KV-CSD wil

Nov. 17, 2023

LG to debut EV chargers in US next year

LG Electronics will make its official debut in the US electric vehicle charger market with its own slow and rapid charger models, the tech giant said Thursday. The company plans to roll out an 11-kilowatt charger and a 175kW fast-charging model in the US market in the first half of 2024. To meet the increasing needs of the growing EV users, the company also said it will expand its lineup of fast chargers in the second half of next year. "We will respond to the ever-increasing demand for EV

Nov. 16, 2023

SK Telecom CEO shows confidence in AI-centered growth strategy

SK Telecom CEO Ryu Young-sang, who also leads SK Group's ICT committee, said Thursday he is confident about seizing new business opportunities as the rise of generative artificial intelligence reshapes industries. “Even before the black swan event of the emergence of (Chat)GPT last year, SK Group has been accumulating its capabilities in AI and new technologies as we (feel sure) about the growth of (such) innovation,” Ryu said in his opening speech at this year’s SK Tech S

Nov. 16, 2023

Google offers data residency for Korean corporate clients

Google Cloud has enabled Korean customers to use the tech giant’s generative artificial intelligence services to store their data domestically instead of overseas to alleviate customers’ worries over data leakage, while ramping up its efforts to expand its presence in the enterprise generative AI market here. On Tuesday, Google’s cloud affiliate announced its new data residency guarantees for Korean clients through Vertex AI by including Korea as one of its first 10 global data

Nov. 15, 2023

Samsung, SK chiefs may accompany president during visit to Netherlands

The heads of South Korea’s top two conglomerates Samsung Group and SK Group are expected to travel to the Netherlands, a semiconductor powerhouse, next month to accompany President Yoon Suk Yeol on his state visit there, according to industry sources on Wednesday. Yoon is scheduled for a state visit to the Netherlands upon the invitation of Dutch King Willem-Alexander on Dec. 12 and 13. It is the first time a South Korean president will make a state visit to the small European country sinc

Nov. 15, 2023

[Herald Interview] Korean team wins James Dyson Award with ‘hands-free’ IV drip

A group of Korean university students has won the top honors at The James Dyson Award, an international engineering competition for young innovators, with their unique invention -- a “hands-free” intravenous drip device. The award was launched by The James Dyson Foundation, an international charity of Sir James Dyson, the founder and chief engineer of the UK appliance giant, in 2005. The billionaire inventor handpicks the award winners every year. This is the first time that a Korean

Nov. 15, 2023

LG companies hint at grand promotions to celebrate Twins' big win

LG Group affiliates, including the country's leading home appliance maker, LG Electronics, are preparing grand promotional events to celebrate the first championship win of its baseball team, the LG Twins, in 29 years. The Twins defeated the KT Wiz 6-2 in Game 5 of the Korean Series at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, claiming the best-of-seven series 4-1 on Monday, for their first championship since 1994. "I am really grateful to the fans who have shown unchanging love and support fo

Nov. 14, 2023

Nara Space successfully launches cube satellite

Nara Space has successfully launched the Observer-1A, a self-developed commercial cube satellite, becoming the first Korean company to achieve the feat, opening a new chapter for the country’s private space industry. Nara Space said Monday that the Observer-1A's beacon transmission and bidirectional communication had been completed within about an hour and 20 minutes after its ejection from SpaceX’s Falcon 9. The satellite was loaded on the US company’s launch vehicle, whi

Nov. 13, 2023

SK hynix starts supply of world’s fastest mobile DRAM for China's Vivo

SK hynix has started supplying 16-gigabyte packages of Low Power Double Data Rate 5 Turbo, the fastest mobile DRAM available today, to its customers, the company announced Monday. The world’s second-largest memory chipmaker said it has started shipping its up-to-date product to Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo, which will be using the memory chips in its latest smartphones, the X100 and X100 Pro. LPDDR is a low-power DRAM for mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, which aim

Nov. 13, 2023

[Photo News] Inspection before Suneung

Engineers of Hi-MSolutek, LG Electronics’ service and maintenance affiliate, inspect an air conditioner in a classroom designated as a venue for the Suneung, Korea’s College Scholastic Ability Test, slated for Thursday this week. LG Electronics said it is running inspections of its air conditioners installed at 250 examination sites across the country until Wednesday. (LG Electronics)

Nov. 13, 2023

LG Display set for turnaround next year, buoyed by Apple’s first OLED iPad

LG Display is expected to get out of the red next year earlier than expected, by supplying organic light-emitting displays for Apple's upcoming iPad Pro, of which the panels are to be three times more expensive than that of the iPhone. According to industry sources on Sunday, the Korean panel maker will start OLED production for the upcoming iPad Pro in February next year at its plant in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. This is about three months earlier than predicted, with Apple forecast to launc

Nov. 12, 2023

[Photo News] Samsung chief at pacific islands forum

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong (far right) poses with Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown (center) and South Korean Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Cho Seung-hwan at the Pacific Islands Forum held on the Cook Islands in the South Pacific Ocean, Wednesday. The Samsung chief also met with Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka during the event. Lee promoted the tech giant’s corporate social responsibility program and Busan’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo, according

Nov. 9, 2023