Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has a “credibility crisis” fueled by its failure to crack down on shady merchants, counterfeit goods, bribery and misleading promotions in online malls, the Chinese government said.The scathing report by the State Administration for Industry & Commerce accused Alibaba of allowing merchants to operate without required business licenses, to run unauthorized stores that co-opt famous brands and sell fake wine and handbags. Alibaba employees took bribes, and the e-commerce

Internet giant Naver, which is struggling to catch up in mobile businesses on its home turf, said Wednesday that it would push to secure its footing in the realm.“As many already know, and some statistics show, the Web portal Naver is not the leader in mobile services,” said Han Seong-sook, the general director of Naver’s service departments, at a press meeting in Seoul on Tuesday, admitting the company is currently facing immense difficulties due to the fast-changing business environment.  Han

Samsung Electronics, which aims to become a powerhouse in the global mobile chip market, is likely to become the biggest beneficiary of the escalating overheating fiasco of its key supplier Qualcomm, industry watchers said Monday.“The latest thermal issues involving its competitor’s product could be another opportunity for Samsung to increase its presence in the global mobile chip market,” said Lee Seung-woo, an analyst from IBK Securities.“As a result, Samsung’s next flagship Galaxy S6 equipped

Software powerhouse Oracle has recently been turning to cloud computing businesses to meet the rising demand for services available over the Web. Mark Hurd, Oracle’s cochief executive, expressed strong confidence in his company’s prospects in the cloud industry during a visit to South Korea last Thursday.“We will sell more new cloud in the next year than any other company in the world,” said Mark Hurd at a joint interview with Korean news outlets on late Thursday afternoon. Mark has been sharing

The number of requests by investigative agencies for information from the nation’s Web-portal giants ― Naver and Daum Kakao ― have steadily increased over the years, raising public concern about the government’s infringement on users’ privacy online.The number of search and seizure warrants for user information increased 6.3 times from 1,487 in 2012 to 9,342 in 2014, according to a transparency report released by Naver on Thursday. Around 9,244 warrants were issued in 2013. “The requests for war

A Seoul court has banned an SK Telecom advertisement, saying Friday that it falsely claimed SKT was the first to commercialize triband Long Term Evolution services.“SK Telecom’s ad includes false and exaggerated information since it did not commercialize the triband LTE services,” the Seoul Central District Court said in its ruling.The court also said this sort of deceptive ad could be used to secure the top position of the mobile carrier in the domestic market and could damage the market order.

Policymakers have decided to introduce tighter measures to combat child abuse at day care centers and kindergartens nationwide, while offering more support programs for working and single parents.In its policy briefing session at Cheong Wa Dae on Thursday, the Welfare Ministry reported that it planned to install surveillance cameras at about 90 percent of kindergartens nationwide by next year.In addition, both the ruling and opposition parties are to pass a law requiring all day care centers to

The Korea Communications Commission, the nation’s top telecom regulator, said Thursday it would file a complaint against Uber Korea with the prosecution on charges of violating laws related to telecommunication information.The decision came after the Seoul Metropolitan Government requested last week that the state regulator ban Uber’s services, which it said had breached laws related to location-based services.(Bloomberg)The local government has stepped up its efforts to keep the taxi-hailing ap

The nation’s telecom regulator said Wednesday that it would probe an alleged illegal subsidy case involving SK Telecom.The Korea Communications Commission said SK Telecom is suspected of handing out illegal subsidies to lure subscribers from other mobile network operators.The KCC revealed its intentions after KT, one of the nation’s major telecom firms, submitted documents it said proved the illegal marketing activities of its rival earlier this week. “SKT cannot help but express its perplexity

Having benefited from fast network infrastructure since the early 2000s, South Korea has been considered a global Internet powerhouse, but the era of the Internet of Things may put an end to that, according to the chief of Cisco Systems Korea. “Korea used to be far ahead of other nations in terms of Internet capabilities, but it is losing steam and failing to achieve changes, while other nations are quickly catching up,” said Cisco Systems Korea general manager Chong Kyung-won at a media briefin

South Korea’s tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. said Wednesday it will start sales of the Galaxy A5, the latest in its low-end smartphone lineup, at home Thursday, as it seeks to expand its footing in the low-end sector.The 5-inch Galaxy A5, equipped with a metal frame, will cost around 484,000 won ($445.26) at home, the company said. It is equipped with a 13-megapixel rear camera with a 2,300 mAh battery capacity. Models pose with Samsung’s mid-range Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 smartphones, featur

Microsoft Korea launched the cloud-based predictive analytics service Azure Machine Learning in South Korea on Wednesday.The new MS service, which uses highly sophisticated data analytics algorithms, helps users to make predictions on a wide variety of managerial or social issues, such as economy, fraud detection and crime rates.“The Azure Machine Learning will be able to help not only data scientists but also decision makers at businesses to sift through structured and unstructured data and mak

LG Chem, the chemical, battery, and electronics materials business unit of LG Group, said it would beef up its research and development capabilities for next-generation businesses throughout this year. In line with the effort, the world’s leading chemical firm has recruited former Seoul National University professor Lee Jin-kyu, a renowned expert of inorganic nanomaterials, as the research chairman. The new chief researcher received a doctoral degree under the guidance of Nobel Prize laureate in

Samsung Electronics’ mobile business unit chief Shin Jong-kyun officially denied the rumors of Samsung’s takeover plan of Canadian smartphone-maker Blackberry.Shin Jong-kyun, the president of Samsung Electronics` mobile buisness unit. (Yonhap)“The recent reports of the BlackBerry takeover are false,” said Shin at the annual Samsung Group dinner gathering at Hotel Shilla in Seoul on Monday.Despite Samsung’s denial of the takeover rumors, some news outlets have continued to report that Samsung is

Merck, the world’s leading chemical and materials firm, said Monday that it would participate in the BAU 2015 exhibition, an international architecture, materials and systems trade show being held from Monday through Saturday (local time) in Munich. At the trade fair, the firm will showcase its state-of-the-art materials technology including Liquid Crystal Windows, smart windowpanes that can control the amount of sunlight penetrating the glass to reduce energy consumption.“We believe the liquid

LG Uplus executive vice president Kim Sun-tae (right) and Andrew Cope, head of Nokia Networks’ Korean office, pose after signing an MOU for R&D collaboration for the fifth generation networks. (LG Uplus)South Korea’s smallest mobile carrier, LG Uplus Corp., said Monday it has agreed with Nokia to join hands in developing the fifth-generation network technologies, which is set to emerge as the new industrial standard in the near future.Under the memorandum of understanding, LG and Nokia will coop

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest smartphone-maker by sales volume, is scheduled to release a series of mid- to low-end Android-based smartphones, including the Galaxy A5 and A7, in Korea this week in an effort to maintain its grip on the global smartphone market.Boasting Samsung’s first fully metal smartphone body, the A5 features a 5-megapixel front-facing camera, along with a 5-inch high-definition super AMOLED display, 1.2 GHz quad-core processor and 2,300 mAh battery, industry source

LAS VEGAS ― Brimming with cross-industry innovations, this year’s International CES, the world’s largest electronics trade show, was a hotbed of collaboration and technological convergence. From tennis rackets, watches, jewelry and clothing to household appliances, the event showed how conventional products were getting high-tech upgrades for the coming era of the Internet of Things.One noticeable feature of this year’s CES, which closed Friday, was the slew of technological collaborations for a

LAS VEGAS ― LG Electronics CEO Cho Seong-jin apologized for having caused public concerns over his alleged involvement in damaging a washer made by its rival at a global consumer electronics show last year.Speaking at a news conference at the 2015 International CES here, Cho said, “I would like to make a sincere apology first for the latest incidents.” Cho, who is in charge of the company’s home appliance and air solution unit, has been accused of having masterminded a plot to damage Samsung Ele

LAS VEGAS ― Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are competing with premium TVs at the 2015 International CES, which opened in Las Vegas on Tuesday (local time). But the two tech giants are jockeying for position in the high-end TV market with different display technologies. Samsung, the world’s largest TV-maker by sales, said it would push for the growth of the SUHD TV, based on liquid crystal display technology, while its local rival LG has been trying to gain traction with organic light-emi