South Korean internet giant Naver said Thursday its operating profit fell 29 percent on-year in the third quarter due to losses from its Japan-based mobile messaging unit Line and increased tech investment costs.　The firm posted an operating profit of 221.7 billion won ($195 million) in the July-September period, down 29 percent from the same three months of last year.　Third-quarter revenue came to 1.39 trillion won, up 16.4 percent on-year, while net profit fell 68.3 percent on-year to 68.4 bil

If you are a driver, you have likely experienced a navigation app that cannot locate your position due to a loss of GPS or network signal when traveling through isolated sites like tunnels, underground parking lots or narrow roads between high-rise buildings.But this annoyance may soon disappear, as South Korean mobile giant Kakao has set out to develop a next-generation location-tracking technology that will ensure that location-tracking remains stable at all times, even in confined locations.K

Samsung BioLogics said Tuesday that its third-quarter operating profit fell 55.7 percent on-year to 10.5 billion won ($9.23 million), attributing the decline to production changes at two of its biologics manufacturing plants.The company’s revenue in the July-September period reached 101.1 billion, down 19.4 percent from the previous year. The drop in revenue was also accredited to production changes at the firm’s No. 1 and No. 2 plants.Samsung BioLogics headquarters in Songdo, Incheon (Park Hyun

SONGDO VISIT -- Participants of the 17th World Korean Business Convention, an annual event celebrating the achievements of overseas Korean businessmen and traders and exploring new business opportunities, listen to a presentation at Samsung BioLogics’ headquarters in Songdo, Incheon, Tuesday. The theme of this year’s World Korean Business Convention is “United Hansang.” Hansang means “Korean merchants” in Korean. (Yonhap)

China-based access to South Korean internet giant Naver’s online blogs and cafes has been cut off for a week now, raising speculation that China’s censorship of foreign websites has effectively extended to Korea’s top portal website.　Internet users in China have been unable to access Naver blogs (blog.naver.com) and cafes (cafe.naver.com) since Oct. 16. The block still appeared to be in place as of Tuesday. 　Users in China can still access Naver’s search engine and email services without issue.

Neofect, a South Korean medical technology startup specializing in smart rehabilitation solutions, has begun procedures to be listed on the country’s secondary bourse, Kosdaq, by next month, the company said Monday.　　Neofect has applied for preliminary screening of its planned initial public offering, putting up for sale 1.8 million shares at 10,000-12,500 won ($9-11) per share. 　　The company is looking to raise between 18 billion and 22.5 billion won through the IPO. The book-building process w

Samsung Medison, a medical equipment manufacturer under South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, on Monday unveiled a next-generation ultrasound system expected to better facilitate examinations during high-risk pregnancies and the early diagnosis of fetal abnormalities.　The company is showcasing HERA W10 -- short for Hyper-aperture Enhanced Reconstruction Architecture -- at the 28th World Congress of the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology in Singapore, whuch continues un

Kakao Games, which recently pushed back its initial public offering plans to next year to prioritize internal growth, is stepping up efforts to successfully launch and service a variety of new games on its home turf of South Korea by year’s end. 　The game publishing unit of Kakao is set to launch within this month “Friends Racing,” a casual game featuring Kakao Friends, the flagship characters from the country’s top-used mobile messenger KakaoTalk. Players can choose among eight Kakao Friends ch

South Korean internet giant Naver and the country’s top biopharma companies Celltrion and Samsung BioLogics have been listed on Fortune’s Future 50, which ranks global companies with the best prospects for long-term growth.　The global business magazine on Friday announced the Future 50 list, compiled annually in partnership with the Boston Consulting Group. Naver, which operates Korea’s dominant portal website, ranked sixth. Celltrion, a developer of biosimilar drugs, ranked 17th, while contract

Kakao Navi, the mobile navigation app from South Korean mobile messaging giant Kakao, now offers upgraded voice command features following the adoption of the firm’s artificial intelligence engine Kakao I, the company said Wednesday. With the change, Kakao Navi users can access key features of Kakao Navi as well as those offered by Kakao’s AI speaker Kakao Mini via voice. To activate, users simply need to say “Hey Kakao,” click the voice command button or make hand gestures near the phone. Kakao

South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT said Wednesday that it co-hosted the Digital Development Partnership workshop with the World Bank, sharing Korea’s experience in building a digital economy with high-level representatives from low-income countries. Held from Oct. 15-19, the DDP workshop brought representatives from countries ranging from Angola to Indonesia and Uzbekistan to learn from Korea’s digital development experience across both the public and private sectors.  Boutheina Guermazi,

South Korea’s top government and political figures, corporate executives and diplomats from Southeast Asia gathered at The Korea Herald’s inaugural business forum Tuesday, an event that aimed to increase mutual understanding and cooperation and reinforce economic ties between the two sides.The Korea Herald Biz Forum reflected the Moon Jae-in government’s “New Southern Policy,” which strives to elevate Korea’s diplomatic and economic ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as well as

SK Biopharmaceuticals, the new drug development unit of South Korea’s telecom-to-energy conglomerate SK Group, said Monday it had finished developing an artificially intelligent drug development and design platform that is expected to speed up its new drug discovery efforts.　The AI platform was built by studying the vast amount of research on central nervous system disorders and developing optimized algorithms in partnership with SK Holdings C&C and its AI platform Aibril. AI-supported drug deve

South Korea’s media regulator said Sunday that around 35,000 Korean Facebook accounts had been compromised in the latest security breach at the social networking site, pledging to continue investigating the matter and to take action as needed.The Korea Communications Commission said Facebook had informed the regulator that an estimated 34,891 accounts had been compromised Sept. 14-25, exposing sensitive information such as names, email addresses, phone numbers and other information visible on us

A network-aggregation technology standard that grants users simultaneous access to today’s Long Term Evolution network and the next-generation 5G network has gained official approval from the telecommunications standardization body 3GPP.South Korean mobile carrier SK Telecom said Thursday that its dual-connectivity technology, which allows data to be sent over the 5G and LTE networks at the same time, was accepted as an official standard at last week’s 3GPP conference in Chengdu, China.As a resu

The chiefs of South Korea’s Hanwha Group and the US-based Heritage Foundation called for efforts to strengthen the US-Korea alliance during a meeting in Seoul on Friday, the conglomerate said Sunday.　Hanwha Chairman Kim Seung-youn and Heritage Foundation founder and former president Edwin J. Feulner Jr. exchanged ideas on various topics, including cooperation on strengthening US-South Korea relations, forging peace on the Korean Peninsula and the US-China trade war. The two have met regularly si

From indoor navigation using augmented reality to ultra-high definition mapping technology for autonomous driving, South Korean internet giant Naver is developing a range of location-tracking technologies it believes will form the backbone of new offline services in the future. Some of these technologies were unveiled Thursday at Naver’s annual developer’s conference Deview 2018 held in Seoul, organized to showcase the Korean portal site operator’s future tech development direction each year. St

South Korean biopharma company Celltrion is on track toward launching its Rituxan biosimilar in the US market, as the drug has obtained the endorsement of the US Food and Drug Administration’s drug advisory committee.Celltrion and its marketing partner Teva Pharmaceutical Industries said Thursday that the US FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted unanimously 16-0 to recommend the approval of CT-P10, indicating the drug is highly likely to win the FDA’s final approval. The decision came a

South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT will consider launching a joint government investigation into the tax and network usage fee arrangements of foreign information and communication technology companies such as Google and Facebook. 　During the ministry’s parliamentary audit held at the Gwacheon Government Complex on Wednesday, Science and ICT Minister Yoo Young-min said that it would work with multiple ministries to determine the exact amount of taxes foreign ICT firms pay in Korea, and th

NAVER MOBILE REVAMP — Naver CEO Han Seong-sook speaks during the Naver Connect 2019 conference held in Seoul, Wednesday. During the event, Naver officially announced a series of changes to its mobile site, including changing its starting page to include only a search bar, similar to Google’s website. The news section can be accessed by sliding to the right, where articles curated by artificial intelligence engines will appear. (Yonhap)