KakaoTalk, South Korea’s top mobile messenger, celebrated the 10th anniversary of its emoticon service, highlighting the jobs it has created for freelancers. KakaoTalk emoticons that can be purchased and used in the mobile messenger have raised 700 billion won ($586 million) in sales revenue since their launch in 2011, according to the company. More than 300,000 emoticon sets have been sold, and 220 billion emoticons have been sent among users. Five emoticon sets have each collected mo

The metaverse, a kind of virtual community that lets users interact in real-time, carries potential legal risks, and requires regulations to ensure platform operators protect their users from digital crimes, experts said Friday. “Since metaverse embodies the virtual world as almost exactly the same as the real world, there are concerns on severe privacy violations. It is highly possible that data on the users’ whereabouts, medical information and political affiliations could be lea

South Korean blockchain research company AMAXG has put up an ad on the Time Square billboard in New York, sharing its vision on metaverse and nonfungible tokens. The ad says, “AMAXG Group is in full support of technological innovation of metaverse in Korea.” AMAXG Group has recently announced it will expand its BizAuto Platform, a group of metaverse services platforms, consisting of three platforms -- BIZA-UVIT, BIZA-Metaversity and BIZA-CarnegieMall. It plans to add BIZA-Motors,

Dunamu, the operator of cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, said Wednesday that it sold its first NFT art: two paintings by the famous Korean pop artist Jang Koal. The first art piece, “Mirage Cat 3,” started its bidding price from 0.0416 bitcoins, worth 2.8 million won ($2,350), and was sold on Wednesday on the Upbit NFT Beta platform to a bidder who had offered 3.5098 bitcoins, or about 240 million won, the company said. The nonfungible token, digital counterparts of real-world asse

Kakao Brain, an AI technology research and development subsidiary of Kakao, said Thursday it will upgrade its Korean-language AI model to go full swing in promoting the development of local AI industry. According to the AI company, it plans to enhance the deep learning process of KoGPT, Kako Brain’s Korean- language AI model, and make it 100 times more efficient by using Google Cloud’s supercomputer, Google Tensor Processing Unit. Google TPU is a large-scale computing system that

South Korean internet giant Naver on Wednesday unveiled its latest technology to expand its business in the metaverse, the fast-emerging platform connecting virtual communities. “We will soon launch Arcverse, a metaverse ecosystem, that connects the virtual world and real world. In Arcverse, users will be able to use the data and services from both worlds at the same time,” said Seok Sang-ok, CEO of Naver Labs, during Deview 2021, Naver’s 14th developer conference. For insta

Dunamu, the operator of cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, said Tuesday that it has launched a new trading platform for nonfungible tokens, further expanding its footprint in the virtual asset space. NFTs are blockchain-based digital counterparts of real-world assets, mostly in the areas of visual arts or music. The blockchain company opened its Upbit NFT Beta service on Upbit’s website, where its users can sell and purchase NFTs at auction. Using the “Drops” function, users ca

South Korea’s financial regulator said Tuesday it might impose tax on nonfungible tokens, adding fuel to controversy surrounding virtual asset taxation in the country. NFTs refer to the digital counterparts of real-world assets, mostly of visual art or music, that guarantee ownership through the blockchain technology. Financial Services Commission Vice Chairman Doh Kyu-sang recently said that the government could collect taxes on NFTs under the current Act on the Specified Financial Tran

Emro, a supply chain management software company in Korea, said Monday its third-quarter net profit rose 21 percent from a year ago on expansion of clients and business. According to the company’s regulatory filing, its net profit stood at 3.98 billion won ($3.3 million) in the July-September period. Its operating income jumped 42 percent on-year to 4.04 billion won, and revenue expanded 11 percent to 11.2 billion won in the cited period. Emro said its net profit grew thanks to the incr

Coway, a South Korean home appliance maker, said Monday that it has launched a premium built-in water purifier that replaces the previous high-end model it introduced 10 years ago, with the aim of leading the trend toward built-in appliances. Coway’s Noble built-in water purifier features an under-sink filtration system, which is more commonly used abroad than in Korea, according to the company. For domestic customers who aren’t familiar with built-in water purifiers, Coway develop

South Korean blockchain research company AMAXG has launched a metaverse platform where people can trade nonfungible tokens, strengthening its initiative for blockchain commercialization. AMAXG recently launched the platform, dubbed BIZA-UVIT, after joining hands with K2SOFT, a metaverse platform and ANISTAR, a provider of cultural content. According to AMAXG, BIZA-UVIT users can trade NFTs in the metaverse, virtual worlds shared by people online, and expand their own virtual worlds. NFTs are

Property technology startups, companies that provide digital services in the real estate industry, are enjoying the spotlight due to the digital transformation sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, but challenges lie ahead, experts said Wednesday. “Before COVID-19, the real estate industry was one of the most hesitant to implement innovative digital technology. That was largely because clients needed to visit and see the interior work for themselves before making any investment decisions,&rd

Korea’s top comedian Yoo Jae-suk became a shareholder of Kakao Entertainment, the agency said Tuesday. “Yoo Jae-suk participated in the agency’s most recent capital increase, largely to strengthen his trust-based partnership with Yu Hee-yeol,” a Kakao Entertainment official said. Yu, CEO of K-pop agency Antenna, had invested 7 billion won ($5.9 million) in Kakao Entertainment after selling all the shares of his own company. Yu currently holds 0.07 percent of Kakao Ente

Mirae Asset Securities said Tuesday it was listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for the 10th consecutive year, receiving recognition for its commitment to socially responsible investment. As the first global sustainability benchmark, the DJSI World Index selects the top 2,544 listed companies based on their free-float market capitalization. It then evaluates the companies’ environment, social and governance performance and only picks the top 10 percent to be added to the i

South Korean game companies with new business plans to develop games using nonfungible tokens saw their share prices surge Monday, despite concerns over the market being overheated without actual plans laid out to materialize such a big agenda, experts said Monday. Nonfungible tokens refer to the digital counterparts of real-world assets, largely visual art or music, that guarantee ownership through the blockchain technology. Game developers enjoying a sudden spike in stock prices have announ

South Korean crypto exchange Coinone has passed the high bar for official registration while the case of its bigger rival Bithumb remains pending, the country’s top financial regulator said Friday. The Financial Intelligence Unit, an anti-money laundering unit under the Financial Services Commission, approved Coinone’s application to register its virtual asset business but is holding off on a decision about Bithumb. Market insiders suggested that the delay might have something to

South Korea’s financial watchdog on Friday warned online-only lender KakaoBank to improve its monitoring system that protects against money laundering. Financial Supervisory Service concluded that KakaoBank’s anti-money-laundering team lacks a monitoring process, relying only on receiving tips from other teams. As a result of weak monitoring, the online lender failed to ring the alarm on several cases that involved suspicious money transfers overseas, the FSS said. For instance,

Morgan Stanley Capital International said Friday that it has added six South Korean stocks, including local gaming giants Kakao Games and Krafton, to its regional emerging market index via November’s quarterly review. According to the capital market indexes provider, the rest of the list includes L&F, a battery materials manufacturer, fashion company F&F, diagnostics company SD Biosensor and Iljin Materials, an electronics components manufacturer. At the same time, it took thre

The number of employed people in South Korea grew for the eighth straight month in October, marking the lowest unemployment rate in eight years and signaling a gradual recovery in the country’s labor market from the effects of the pandemic, data showed Wednesday. According to the data from Statistics Korea, the number of hired workers surged by 652,000 on-year to 27.7 million, showing a continual increase since March. Unemployment was 2.8 percent, down from 3.7 percent last year -- the l

One out of 10 small and midsize company owners are selling their firms because their children are refusing to take over the family business, preferring a cash inheritance by selling the companies their parents built, a survey showed Tuesday. According to Korea M&A Exchange, a platform that mediates buyers and sellers of small and medium-sized enterprises, of the 5,481 business owners looking for buyers, 515 said they were looking for new owners to take over their firms as their children di