Apple reclaimed its title as the world’s most valuable brand, according to a survey from Kantar BrandZ, knocking rival Amazon off the top spot for the first time in three years. 　The iPhone maker’s brand value reached $947 billion this year, while Amazon slipped to third, according to Kantar’s survey published June 15. Apple was last ranked the most valuable brand in 2015. 　Louis Vuitton became the first luxury brand to reach the top 10 after experiencing 64 percent growth

　Hong Kong is the world’s most expensive city to live in as an expat for the second year in a row, according to a new study. New York and Geneva took second and third place in the rankings. 　Higher prices and a stronger currency over the past year kept the Asian city at the top of the tree, according to ECA International, which carried out its research in March this year. London and Tokyo round out the top five. 　Seoul, capital city of South Korea, stays 10th most expensive location in

　More than 46,000 people reported losing a total of over $1 billion in cryptocurrency scams since the start of 2021, the US Federal Trade Commission said in a report. 　Nearly half the people who reported losing digital currencies in a scam said it started with an ad, post or a message on a social media platform, according to the FTC. 　The craze for cryptocurrencies was at a fever pitch last year, with bitcoin hitting a record high of $69,000 in November. 　Reports point to social media and cr

　The number of executives at South Korea’s major firms expanded 4.5 percent on-year in the first quarter of the year despite the coronavirus pandemic, a corporate tracker said. 　A total of 353 leading companies in Asia’s fourth-largest economy had a combined 14,418 executives as of end-March this year, up from 13,803 a year earlier, according to the Leaders Index. 　The figure covers companies out of the country’s top 500 corporations by sales that have disclosed their first-

　The number of newly adopted South Korean children fell for the third consecutive year in 2021 amid the pandemic, government data showed. 　According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the number of new child adoptees reached 415 last year, down from 704 in 2019 and 492 in 2020. Officials attributed the decrease in adoption to the effects of COVID-19. 　Among the new adoptees, 189, or 45.5 percent, were adopted by overseas families. Of those, 66.7 percent were sent to the United States. Oth

　Chinese people purchased nearly 7,000 buildings in South Korea last year, with more than half of the properties being in the Greater Seoul area, a ruling party lawmaker said. 　A total of 6,640 buildings, including apartments, were purchased by Chinese nationals last year, and 2,659 of them are located in Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds the capital city of Seoul, Chung Woo-taik, a lawmaker of the ruling People Power Party, said in a report, citing the National Assembly Research Service. 　C

　South Korea's imports of home furnishing products hit an all-time high last year on the back of demand by stay-at-home consumers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, data showed. 　The imports of eight kinds of home furnishing goods, including sofas and lamps, came to $3.5 billion last year, up 15.6 percent from a year earlier, according to data from the Korea Customs Service. 　It rose 26.1 percent from the pre-pandemic year of 2019. 　By country, inbound shipments from China were the largest with $2.

　Nearly half of LGBTQ youth aged 13 to 24 in America seriously considered committing suicide last year, according to a survey released. 　The poll of nearly 34,000 people was conducted by The Trevor Project, a non-profit that works to prevent suicide among young people in the LGTBQ community. 　This annual survey “demonstrates that rates of suicidal thoughts have trended upward among LGBTQ young people over the last three years,” said Amit Paley, the organization’s executive d

  　The United States’ approval rating in South Korea jumped at one of the steepest rates among Asian countries in 2021, a poll showed. 　The approval rating of US leadership in South Korea climbed to 59 percent last year from 30 percent a year earlier, according to Gallup. 　The increase marks the second highest among 33 Asian countries where the poll was conducted between April 2021 and January 2022. 　The median approval of US leadership in Asia was 41 percent. 　The approval rate for

  　Even as a new omicron wave gathers speed in some parts of the world, most countries are pushing ahead with reopening travel and easing restrictions in a bid to move past the COVID-19 era. 　In March, Norway claimed the No. 1 spot in Bloomberg’s COVID Resilience Ranking. After scrapping all of its travel restrictions, the country scored the highest among the 53 economies ranked with the most Vaccinated Travel Routes open and loose social curbs. The United Arab Emirates and Ireland r

　Almost half of call center workers have thought about taking their own lives due to poor labor conditions and extreme emotional labor, a state human rights watchdog survey showed. 　In the survey of 1,996 call center people conducted by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea from August to October, 48 percent said they thought of killing themselves and 30 percent said they had the thought in the past year. 　As reasons for having suicidal thoughts, economic difficulty was cited the most

　Nearly 7 in 10 foreign buyers think that South Korea’s national brand is having a positive impact on their purchases of products from Asia‘s fourth-largest economy, a poll showed. 　According to the survey of 213 foreign buyers, 72.9 percent of the respondents replied that their imports of South Korean goods have been affected positively by the country’s national brand. 　Slightly over 25.4 percent said South Korean products remind them of high quality, followed by reasonable

　The popularity of professional baseball in South Korea is in decline, especially among people in their 20s, the exact demographic that teams are trying to attract, a national poll showed. 　Gallup Korea released results of its survey of 1,004 South Koreans aged 18 or older from March 15-17. 　And only 31 percent of the polled said they had at least some interest in the Korea Baseball Organization, the lowest since 2013 and well off the record high of 48 percent in 2014. 　Among different age b

　South Korea’s imports of coffee surged more than 24 percent to hit a new all-time high in 2021 on its growing popularity here, data showed. 　The value of the country's coffee imports stood at $916.5 million last year, up 24.2 percent from the previous year, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service and industry sources. 　It marks the first time that South Korea’s coffee imports have exceeded the 1 trillion-won ($823 million) level in terms of the local currency. 　Last

  　More than half of South Koreans are against President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s plan to move the presidential office out of Cheong Wa Dae, while some 44 percent support the idea, a poll showed Wednesday. 　According to the poll of 500 adults, conducted by pollster Realmeter on Tuesday, 53.7 percent said the presidential office should remain at Cheong Wa Dae, and 44.6 percent said they back the relocation plan. 　On Sunday, Yoon announced his decision to move the presidential office from

  　South Korea’s import prices of grain has jumped nearly 50 percent over the past two years to a near nine-year high amid the prolonged coronavirus pandemic, data showed. 　Prices of imported grains came to $386 per ton in February, up 26 percent from a year earlier and 47.4 percent from two years earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service and industry sources. 　The February per-ton import price represented the highest level since it reached $388 in May 2013. 　Last