IOT-POWERED BIKES -- A fleet of public bikes powered by internet of things technology are parked at a docking station in Sejong City on Monday. The GPS-equipped bikes, which will officially be available for use from Wednesday, can be unlocked and returned at any of the city’s 400 bike docking stations by using a smartphone app. (Yonhap)

Samsung Bioepis said Monday that it plans to soon start phase 1 clinical trials for its first new drug candidate in development with Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical, setting a fresh milestone in the South Korean drugmaker’s push into new drug development.The therapeutic candidate, SB26, also known as TAK-671, is an ulinastatin-Fc fusion protein to treat severe acute pancreatitis. It is the first result of the new drug development collaboration partnership signed by the two companies in August 2017

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles highlighting South Korea’s promising startups in the emerging sectors of digital health care and next-generation medical devices. This is the 21st installment. - Ed.In South Korea, laser eye surgery, performed as LASIK or LASEK, has become a common medical procedure over the past decade. But for many patients, improved eyesight comes at the cost of a new, debilitating side effect: dry eye syndrome. Dry eye syndrome, or DES, is a condition in wh

Bluehole, the South Korean game company behind the hit survival shooter game “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds,” said Friday that it had entered a strategic partnership with China’s Tencent Holdings to strengthen its footing in the global game market.Bluehole also said that Tencent had purchased a stake in Bluehole from Bluehole’s founding chairman, Chang Byung-gyu, as well as other early investors, confirming previous news reports that a deal was underway.Bluehole did not disclose the exact size o

The globally popular survival shooting game “Fortnite: Battle Royale” officially arrived in South Korea on Friday. “Fortnite” is now available on PlayStation 4 consoles and Android smartphones, with preparations underway for the game’s launch at PC cafes nationwide. The game’s launch and future service plans were formally announced by the Korean unit of US-based Epic Games on Friday during a press conference held in Seoul.(Epic Games Korea)“Fortnite” for PS4 can now be downloaded for free via th

Naver Webtoon, the digital comics platform operator under South Korean internet business giant Naver, on Thursday announced the launch of its new unit “Studio N,” which will take charge of translating popular webtoons into new films and drama series.Formed with 100 percent funding from Naver Webtoon, Studio N will work with media production companies to develop and release films and TV dramas based on the intellectual property of popular webtoons. Naver Webtoon CEO Kim Joon-Ku (Naver)The new sub

Kakao, operator of South Korea’s top-used mobile messenger KakaoTalk, said Thursday it posted record-high revenue in the second quarter, but its operating profit dropped 38 percent due to heightened marketing and investment costs.During the April-June period, Kakao’s revenue reached 588.9 billion won ($526 million), up 25.7 percent from the previous year. Operating profit in the quarter came to 588.9 billion won, down 38.2 percent on-year, the company said in its earnings report.Kakao attributed

Less than a year after entering South Korea, Chinese bike-sharing giant Ofo is preparing to pull out of the Korean market in a move that appears to be motivated by shifting market priorities, people familiar with the matter said Tuesday.Ofo recently began putting most of the Korea market employees on a “suspension” as part of a general layoff, as part of steps toward an exit from the market, an industry source with knowledge of the startup’s affairs told The Korea Herald.“Though it has yet to co

Kakao Friends, the character licensing and merchandising unit of South Korea’s mobile messaging giant Kakao, will debut in the US as an official sponsor of 2018 KCON LA, an annual Korean culture convention held in major cities worldwide.　Kakao IX, which operates the Kakao Friends character licensing business, said Tuesday that it is sponsoring the Los Angeles leg of KCON USA, an event that celebrates Korean pop culture ranging from music and dramas to movies and fashion.During KCON LA, Kakao wil

South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Monday that it ordered a recall of 59 hypertension drugs containing valsartan produced by a local drug substance manufacturer, due to its inclusion of above-permitted levels of a chemical that could cause cancer.After an inspection of all valsartan locally produced or imported to Korea, the drug regulator found that some batches of valsartan produced by Daebong LS contained more than 0.3 ppm of N-nitrosodimethylamine, or NDMA, a chemical that c

Macrogen, South Korea’s leading gene sequencing service provider, said Monday that it will work with local big data company Bigster to create a blockchain-based medical big data platform where information such as gene data can be safely stored and exchanged by interested parties. The two companies plan to complete the platform by June next year, joining a number of other firms that are also working to launch a blockchain-based medical data trading platform here.Gene data, which carries critical

Revenue generated by South Korea’s restaurants and bars in the first half of this year dropped 2.6 percent on-year, marking the biggest decline in six years, according to recent data from Statistics Korea.Korea’s retail sales index for the service business sector that includes restaurants and bars for the January-June period stood at 95.9 points, down 2.6 percent from the previous year. This is the biggest decline for the period since the first half of 2012, when the index dropped 2.7 percent. T

Samsung Electronics on Thursday unveiled two new tablet PCs including the Galaxy Tab S4, its new flagship premium tablet that works as both an ordinary tablet and a desktop PC.　“With the Galaxy Tab S4, we’re introducing a premium tablet, equipped with Samsung DeX that helps consumers perform their absolute best wherever they go,” Koh Dong-jin, president and CEO of Samsung Electronics, said in a statement.It is the first Samsung tablet PC to support connection to Samsung DeX, a desktop extension

In the world of human resources, recruiting experienced hires has long operated in two ways: Companies blindly advertise new openings through third-party job listing sites, or pay high fees to headhunting firms to seek out viable candidates for a particular position.But one South Korean startup has set out to disrupt this paradigm by introducing a new mode of recruiting with a proven track record of success -- hiring through personal referrals. Wanted has built a recruitment platform that relies

Line Friends, the character merchandising unit of Japan-based mobile messenger Line, announced Tuesday that it has opened its first pop-up store in Hollywood, Los Angeles, attracting more than 15,000 visitors shortly after the opening.The store officially opened Friday, and will stay open for the next three months. It is the second Line Friends store to open in the US, after the flagship store in New York City, the company said.  (Line Friends)The LA-based pop-up store is located right across fr

A number of South Korean biopharmaceutical companies are expecting a boost in their product exports to North America as they draw closer to securing regulatory approval to commercialize their new drugs in the US market this year.　Nearest to this goal is GC Pharma, a Korean biopharma company formerly known as Green Cross. The company expects the US Food and Drug Administration to approve its immunodeficiency treatment IVIG-SN, short for human normal immunoglobulin G for intravenous administration

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission is reportedly investigating local internet giant Naver on allegations that the company abused its status as the country’s most-used portal website to engage in unfair practices in the online video market.The FTC’s Anti-Monopoly Bureau on Thursday conducted an on-site investigation of Naver’s headquarters in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, to look into the allegations, according to local news reports.  (Yonhap)The recent investigation appears to be an extension of t

When getting to know someone in South Korea, there is a good chance that at one point or another, you will be asked, “What’s your blood type?”　To outsiders, blood type may mean nothing more than information needed to find a match for a blood transfusion.　But in Korea, a person’s blood type -- either A, B, O, or AB -- is widely believed to be predictive of personality and temperament, similar to horoscopes in the West. 　Under the blood type personality theory, a person with Type A blood is dilige

South Korean internet giant Naver said Thursday that its operating profit in the second quarter fell 12.1 percent on-year to 250.6 billion won ($224 million) due to a slowdown in the growth of its mobile and online business and increased investment in new technology innovation.Meanwhile, revenue in the April-June period reached 1.36 trillion won, up 20.7 percent from the same period in the previous year. Net profit also grew 83.1 percent on-year to 314 billion won, the company said.Despite the r

South Korean contract drug manufacturer Samsung BioLogics said Wednesday that it has been licensed for the first time by the US Food and Drug Administration to manufacture a monoclonal antibody drug product in its fully-packaged format at its first plant.　The FDA approval signifies that the given drug product manufactured at Samsung BioLogics can now be sold in the US market.Biologics production comes in two main formats: drug substance and drug product. The former refers to the drug substance i