E-commerce retailer eBay Korea, which operates Gmarket, Auction and G9, shared Thursday that the key reason for its dominance in the industry is its Smile service that creates a convenient online experience.Its online payment system SmilePay, at the forefront of the Smile service, was introduced in 2014. The system allows users to store credit card information online, drastically reducing purchasing time. According to the company, the system accounted for more than 53 percent of all payments mad

South Korean oil refiner S-Oil announced Wednesday it has made it on this year’s Dow Jones Sustainability Indices and has been awarded the 2019 Outstanding Companies Award handed out by the Korea Corporate Governance Service.Both DJSI and KCGS measure corporate sustainability across economic, social and environmental aspects.According to S-Oil, a total of 318 global firms were included in the 2019 DJSI World Index, and S-Oil was one of the 19 Korean firms listed. It is also the only oil re

Hyundai Motor said Thursday its compact vehicle Kona was named the best diesel SUV model in Europe by an auto magazine in Germany. 　The German publication Auto Bild conducted a comparative evaluation of four compact diesel SUVs currently sold in Europe -- Hyundai Motor’s Kona, Mazda’s CX-3, Ford’s EcoSport and Dacia’s Duster.  The four models were assessed across seven categories of body, powertrain, driving dynamic, connectivity, environment, driving comfort and cos

GS Group Chairman Huh Chang-soo on Wednesday opened the fourth-quarter GS Group executive meeting with words of caution, calling for the company to return to fundamentals amid uncertainties. “Once the fundamentals are strengthened, a proper growth path will appear,” Huh said, citing a passage from the Analects of Confucius. The meeting was attended by some 150 executives and staff members of GS affiliates.During the meeting, Huh rolled out three key paths that GS Group should take du

Smilegate Investment, in collaboration with its social responsibility unit Smilegate Hope Studio and the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization, hosted the 2019 Smilegate Global Health Frontier Seminar in Seoul on Monday.Attended by major pharma and bio companies in Korea as well as prominent faculty members from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the seminar featured lectures and discussion panels that sought to share new insights into the bio sector.In addition, Korean biotech fir

National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang took time on Saturday (local time) to inspect the Samsung SDI factory located near Budapest, the company said Sunday.In a meeting with executives and employees of the battery maker, Moon remarked that Samsung represents South Korea in the global market, praising it for its tireless efforts to elevate the global status of both the conglomerate and country. Moon also talked of how proud he was when he heard that foreign countries were purchasing technologies

The Export-Import Bank of Korea has been consistently engaging in community welfare, such as through the Hope Seed volunteer program involving a soup kitchen earlier this month near Seoul Station, according to the bank Sunday.The soup kitchen provided some 300 homeless people with hearty meals ahead of Chuseok. “It was a meaningful time to share some love and bond with those who are excluded during the thanksgiving holiday,” said Eximbank Deputy President Kang Seung-joong.  Acco

Korean cosmetics giant Amorepacific said Wednesday the company delivered a bus and maintenance fee for medical devices worth some 200 million won ($168,000), to the city of Quy Nhon, located in Binh Dinh province in central Vietnam.Attending the delivery ceremony at Quy Nhon city hall was head of Amorepacific Vietnam division Min Jeong-gi, Yongsan district Mayor Sung Jang-hyun as well as Binh Dinh People’s Committee Vice Chairman Phan Cao Thang, Mayor of Quy Nhon Ngo Hoang Nam and head of

Lotte Duty Free invited some 20 youth activists with disabilities from South Korea, China and Japan last month to provide cultural and tourism experiences here, and at the same time address the lack of accessibility for the disabled in major tourist areas, the company said Wednesday.  Organized by Lotte Duty Free and Disabled Peoples’ International Korea, the event itinerary included a guided tour around major attractions in Seoul, a chance to view the annual Lotte Duty Free Family Co

Coupang’s in-house deliverymen certification system has been recognized by the Human Resources Development Service of Korea under the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the company said Tuesday. It is the first delivery-related certification to be approved by a government agency.Coupang’s CS Delivery Expert certification, broken down to Fresh, Senior, Pro, and Master level, is used to rate the level of expertise of Coupang’s deliverymen Coupangmen.  Coupang explained that t

The Korea International Trade Association said Tuesday it will offer selected local startups a test bed to showcase their innovative technologies and services in hopes of vitalizing the ecosystem.According to KITA, Coex Startup Testbed provides opportunities for budding startups to test ideas and technologies that could be implemented in the service industry at Coex.After several stages of expert reviews, startups that make it to the final roster for the test bed will be given the chance to coll

Hyundai Motor’s luxury brand Genesis said Monday that world-renowned auto designer Filippo Perini will head its design studio in Europe, as the brand tries to notch up its design competitiveness globally. Perini will begin his tenure on Sept. 16 as the chief designer of Global Genesis Advanced Design Studio in Europe, where he is expected to play a key role in designing vehicles and leading the future of smart mobility, Genesis said.The Italian designer has decades of experience in the Eur

LG CNS announced Wednesday it will release for free KorQuAD 2.0, consisting of an additional 80,000 datasets, for the benefit of South Korea’s artificial intelligence industry.  The initial release of KorQuAD, short for the Korean Question Answering Dataset, comprises a South Korean machine reading comprehension dataset with over 20,000 question-and-answer sets compiled from Korean Wikipedia entries. It provides guidelines for AI and machines to learn how to extract answers from quest

With the Chuseok holiday approaching, South Korea’s leading oil refiner S-Oil held a charity event at Sungsan Community Welfare Center on Wednesday. The event, titled “Sharing Songpyeon with S-Oil,” was attended by CEO Hussain A Al-Qahtani, along with some 100 executives and employees of the firm. They made songpyeon, a type of rice cake eaten during Chuseok, and donated food as well as gift sets consisting of groceries and daily necessities to 800 low-income families in the Ma

While it may not have the largest market share in South Korea, Renault Samsung Motors is playing a significant role with its active localization efforts.The local unit of French automaker Renault Group operates a plant in Busan that was ranked No. 8 for productivity out of 148 automobile plants worldwide in a 2016 evaluation by the Harbour Report.The company also contributes to the local economy. In 2017 it brought in more than 2.44 trillion won ($2 billion) for its suppliers, up 11.3 percent on

Samsung Display said Tuesday it has created a YouTube channel featuring videos related to display technology. For instance, a quiz show titled “Display Quiz Talkshow,” shortened to “DiTokShow” in Korean, provides educational content on display technology.  The show has previously compared organic light-emitting diode and liquid-crystal display technologies, and explained words such as pixel, resolution and screen ratio.Samsung Display said consumers are exposed to di

South Korean petroleum and refinery company Hyundai Oilbank said Friday it has rolled out activities and perks for employees in response to increasing demand for better work-life balance. For example, one-day after-work workshops spanning from leathercraft to cooking to flower-related classes, which employees can participate in if they are interested.  “The one-day class program was launched to help develop employees’ personal interests outside of work,” a representative o

SK Broadband said Thursday it had teamed up with pharma marketing company Online Pharm to introduce electronic kiosks for pharmacies.The stand called On Kiosk, which provides Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese services, will be able to process simple drug prescriptions, offer guidelines for drug intake, and provide a queuing system for consultations.  The kiosks will be able to take over routine tasks, allowing pharmacists to focus more on providing health consultations. It is also equip

South Korean steelmaker Hyundai Steel said Wednesday it has opened a steel experience center at Kidzania Seoul, where children can roleplay as steel researchers for a day.  The center allows children to learn about the role and importance of steel in daily lives. Children will be able to see and touch raw materials like iron ore and coal, and see the different steel parts that go into cars. According to Hyundai Steel, this is the first such center in the steel industry.The company said the

Kumho Tire announced Wednesday it had achieved an operating profit after 2 1/2 years of losses.The tiremaker said it posted a surplus of 24 billion won ($19.8 million) in operating profit in the second quarter this year. Combined with its 9.1 billion won in profit in the first quarter, that overcomes the 29.7 billion won in operating loss last year. Its debt-to-equity ratio also fell from 354.87 percent in March last year to 205.12 percent the same time this year. The company attributed its curr