Samsung Electronics said Monday it signed a partnership agreement with the US payment service provider PayPal to collaborate for the mobile payment service Samsung Pay. Through the partnership, more than 200 million users of Samsung Pay will be able to pay through their accounts with PayPal, one of the world’s largest internet payment companies. “Samsung Pay in partnership with PayPal will provide more abundant mobile wallet experiences to users,” said Rhee In-jong, Samsung Mobile’s chief techno

Fair Trade Commission chief Kim Sang-jo on Monday said the government’s financial aid to small firms to help them pay for the minimum wage hike will be temporary, in light of growing debate over the government’s surprise decision and its sustainability.“It will not be possible for the government to give financial aid to the private sector for long,” Kim said during a breakfast meeting held at the Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry.Kim’s remark came after the government made an impromptu announ

Harman International, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, acquired British hi-fi company Arcam this month, Samsung confirmed on Monday. “It is true that Harman acquired Arcam in July to deliver the best sound quality to consumers,” said a Samsung official. Arcam is one of the best known brands in hi-fi technology, which refers to high-quality reproduction of sound for home cinema, TVs, tablets, smartphones, streaming systems and speakers. Through the acquisition, Arcam will now sit

Unionized workers at Hyundai Motor on Friday voted to stage a walkout as they press for more wages and benefits, the union said Friday.Hyundai's 50,274-member union cast their votes as wage negotiations with the management are underway.In a vote held from Thursday through Friday, 33,145 members, or 65.93 percent, of the union agreed to go on strike if the wage talks break down, a union spokesman said over the phone. "Union leaders will meet on Tuesday to decide on the guidelines for union member

Marriott International will open 16 more hotels in South Korea over the next five years, its vice president said Friday, amid increasing demand from local residents as well as the steady growth of foreign visitors. Vice President Ramesh Daryanani in charge of global sales in the Asia-Pacific region said the hotel chain operator will expand its establishments in the country's popular tourist areas, including the resort island of Jeju and the southeastern port city of Busan.Marriott International

President Moon Jae-in will host a luncheon with the leaders of South Korea's five major political parties next week to discuss key pending issues including national security, his aides said Friday.The meeting, to be held at the presidential compound Cheong Wa Dae on Wednesday, is intended to brief them on the outcome of Moon's recent summit diplomacy, according to Jun Byung-hun, chief presidential secretary for political affairs."It's expected to serve as an opportunity to have in-depth consulta

Google Assistant has launched its beta test in Korea ahead of its debut here, according to local tech communities on Friday. Google will have to compete with several local rivals, Samsung, Naver, Kakao and local telecom carriers all working on similar services. Google Assistant is a virtual personal assistant, providing diverse services such as answering questions, playing music, making reservations, checking schedules and sending text messages. Available only in English, the service is speculat

Korean battery maker Samsung SDI is upbeat on growing demand for energy storage, driven by an increasing number of countries pushing for energy self-sufficiency, along with a drop in battery prices making it economically feasible.The global energy storage system, or the ESS market, is predicted to see the fast growth in the coming years. According to the US market research firm Navigant Research, it is forecast to grow to 4.3 gigawatt hours this year, around a 50 percent jump from the previous y

Fuji Xerox Korea said Monday it appointed Miyamoto Toru, who led global production sales at its headquarters, as its new chairman. Toru served as an executive of Fuji Xerox’s global production sales business division since 2012 before joining the Korean arm of the company. He started his career at Fuji Xerox in 1987. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Keio University and completed London Business School’s Sloan Masters in Leadership and Strategy program. “I will strengthen the connection between

Korea Electric Power Corporation has joined the Open Connectivity Foundation, making it the first energy company to join the group developing standards for connected devices, OCF Korea said Tuesday. The Open Connectivity Foundation is an industry group developing specification standards to connect devices made by different brands. Set up in February last year, the OCF currently has around 300 member firms, including Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Electrolux.“

Samsung Electronics’ budget smartphone Galaxy A7 with its new voice assistant Bixby will go on sale in Korea on Friday, the tech giant confirmed Wednesday.The 5.7-inch smartphone will only be available via local carrier SK Telecom at the price of 588,500 won ($513).  (SK Telecom)The new Galaxy A7 features Samsung’s artificial intelligent voice assistant Bixby, water-proof function and fingerprint scanner. It also sports a 16-megapixel camera, 3,600 mAh battery and Samsung Pay, a mobile payment s

Hyosung ITX, an information technology unit of Hyosung, said Monday it partnered with Chinese tech giant Huawei to speed up penetration of the Korean tech market. The local firm said it signed with Huawei to become its official sales partner for IT products, including server, storage and network solutions. “We hope to create synergies from Hyosung ITX’s wide sales network and Huawei’s globally proven technologies. Through the partnership, we will expand the IT total service market by exploring p

Yoo Young-min has been formally appointed as the head of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, taking on the difficult tasks of restoring the organization’s governance leadership, finding the country’s next growth engines and easing a conflict with telecom companies. President Moon Jae-in approved the appointment of the new minister Tuesday.Yoo served as an executive of LG Electronics, vice president of LG CNS and chief operating officer of Posco ICT. He replaced Choi Yang-hee, who h

Samsung Electronics is set to report its best-ever quarterly profit in the second quarter, higher than that of Apple, the world’s most profitable company.The South Korean electronics giant estimated Friday that it posted 60 trillion won ($51 billion) in sales and 14 trillion won in operating profit in the April-June period, which are increases of 17.79 percent and 71.99 percent, respectively, from the previous year. This could be the first time that the world’s largest smartphone maker has recor

Samsung Electronics is set to launch a refurbished Galaxy Note 7 on Friday, jumping into the smartphone competition that has turned unseasonably heated this summer.June, a generally offseason period ahead of the rollout of new premium devices in the fall, is expected to be busy this year, as Samsung and LG have continued to launch variants of their premium smartphones. (Samsung Electronics)Samsung said Thursday it will sell its long-rumored refurbished Note 7 on Friday. The device is a renewed v

LG Electronics’ mobile payment service LG Pay will be used for low-budget smartphones next year, the firm’s mobile communication division head said. The service will also be expanded into online shopping malls and in the global market as its rival Samsung Pay offers. “We will expand the use of LG Pay into low-budget smartphones alongside premium phones next year,” Cho Jun-ho, president of LG’s mobile communication division said during a meeting with local bloggers on Friday. LG Pay is a mobile p

삼성전자가 개발한 인공지능(AI) 음성 비서 ‘빅스비’ 영어 버전이 빅데이터 부족으로 출시 지연되고 있다. 　앞서 고동진 삼성전자 무선사업부 사장은 4월 열린 갤럭시S8 미디어데이에서 빅스비의 “영어 버전은 5월에 중국어 버전은 6월에 선보일 것”이라고 했지만, 현재까지는 한국어 버전만 출시된 상황이다. 　4일 삼성 관계자는 “타 언어로 빅스비를 개발하는 것이 예상보다 오래 걸린다. 딥러닝 기반의 빅스비를 운영하려면 충분한 빅데이터가 필요한데 아직 부족하다”고 말했다.  (사진=삼성전자 웹사이트)　빅데이터는 스스로 학습하고 진화하는 딥러닝 기반 서비스에게 중요한 자원이지만, 하드웨어 강자인 삼성은 구글, 아마존과 애플에 비해 빅데이터 시장에 뒤늦게 뛰어들었다. 　출시 지연의 또 다른 이유는 미국 실리콘밸리에 있는 삼성리서치아메리카(Samsung Research America) 소속 미국인 엔지니어들과 한국에 있는 경영진과의 소통 때문이다.　업계 관계자는 “현재 미국 지사에서 엔지니어

The English version of Samsung Electronics’ voice-assistant service Bixby has been delayed because it needs more accumulation of data, which is key to deep learning technology, according to the company Tuesday.Bixby is Samsung’s much-touted voice assistant service unveiled with much fanfare in May. It aims to control all of the company’s digital devices and home appliances. Bixby is now available only in Korean, although Samsung’s mobile chief, Koh Dong-jin, said in April, “Bixby’s English versi

The coming fall will be a battlefield of premium smartphones among global leaders Samsung Electronics, Apple and LG Electronics, with all of them featuring similar hardware improvements.Samsung is expected to fire the first shot with its Galaxy Note 8 at the end of August. Apple’s iPhone 8 and LG’s V30 will follow in the following months. All of them will adopt organic light-emitting diode panels, which make the panels curved, and dual cameras that make pictures more vivid and detailed. Samsung’

While the world has recently been hit hard by a series of cyberattacks that have disrupted government agencies and big businesses, Korea seems relatively safe with no reports of any serious intrusions. Local security experts, however, said more malicious cyberattacks will be coming and Korea is susceptible to them due to its tense relations with North Korea and its advanced information technology infrastructure, both of which can be good bait for cybercriminals. Last week, Petya, a new type of R