Reporters generally don’t clap at the events they’re covering, largely to remain impartial. It’s particularly true for South Korean reporters who usually maintain a calm, if not stoic, attitude at official events, no matter how big.But a rare moment occurred on Friday. Local and international reporters gathered at the main press center set up in an exhibition hall in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, erupted into a heartfelt applause at the historic start of the first inter-Korean summit in 11 years. T

I’ve never been one to have my numbers called in a lottery.　Naturally, I was pretty unfazed when Kakao announced at a recent press conference that four winners of a raffle would get a chance to have lunch with one of Kakao’s two new co-CEOs.　Despite my initial skepticism, I found that perhaps my fortune fares better when it doesn’t involve prizes like a new TV or rice cooker. My business card, to my utter surprise, was chosen. As a tech reporter, it was pretty exciting, to say the least.In South

Naver, the operator of South Korea’s largest portal website and search engine, said Thursday that its operating profit in the first quarter fell 11.6 percent on-year to 257 billion won ($238 million), largely due to increased investment into new technologies like artificial intelligence.Revenue during the January-March period rose 21 percent on-year to 1.31 trillion won. Net profit during the quarter came in at 153.8 billion won, down 27.1 percent on-year, according to Naver’s earnings report.Na

Naver, the operator of South Korea’s main portal website and search engine, on Wednesday rolled out a new set of restrictions for its online news comment system in light of burgeoning controversy over an opinion-rigging scandal that involved abuse of the system.　Naver has capped the number of times a user can click “agree” or “disagree” on a comment at 50 times within a 24-hour timeframe. Until now, there had not been any restrictions on the number of times a user could click “agree” or “disagre

Nexon Korea CEO Lee Jung-hun on Wednesday denied rumors that the company is considering the acquisition of Bitstamp, the world’s oldest surviving bitcoin exchange.　“Nexon Korea does not have anything to do with a Bitstamp acquisition,” Lee said during a press conference held at the Nexon Korea headquarters in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday. “We do not have any plans to link cryptocurrencies with our game business,” he said, adding that this does not mean Nexon is ruling out the use of bloc

With aims to develop games that are fun to play for users, video game companies have been focusing primarily on building a strong game core design -- such as devising intricate internal rules or applying quality graphics and sounds.To achieve a fun gameplay model, however, developers are now pushed to focus more on the factors affecting users’ gaming experience, such as variations in the circumstances a user encounters in a game, which can often be difficult to detect. And the process of finding

Artificial intelligence is considered a transformative technology promising vast improvements for businesses across all sectors. While we understand that AI is useful, exactly what kind of benefits can it bring to companies? 　SK Holdings C&C, the information technology services unit of South Korea’s SK Group, aims to help answer the question with the release of a new white paper detailing where and how AI solutions can be leveraged to improve various tasks for business organizations.SK Holdings

South Korean biopharma company Celltrion announced Friday that Truxima, its biosimilar drug referencing Roche’s Rituxan, has been granted marketing approval by Australia’s drug regulator.　Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration accepted Celltrion’s biologics license application to sell Truxima, approved for the treatment of conditions including rheumatoid arthritis and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a rare form of cancer, according to Celltrion. Truxima (Celltrion)Biosimilars refer to cheaper, nea

Naengmeyon -- icy cold noodles typically served in a broth made of beef, or marinated in a sweet-spicy sauce -- is a popular traditional dish in Korea, with demand particularly peaking in the summer.　The cold noodles are sometimes eaten as a standalone dish at restaurants specializing in naengmyeon, or consumed as a refreshing food to finish off a meal of grilled meat. Typically, naengmyeon is divided into two types: mul-naengmyeon, cold noodles served in a clear broth that typically combines be

Samsung Display, the display unit of South Korean tech giant Samsung Group, said Friday that it has filed an administrative suit at the Daejeon District Court seeking to nullify the government’s order to disclose workplace assessment reports on the firm’s production plant.The display maker confirmed that it had filed the suit on April 17, challenging the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s mandate to publicize assessment reports on its production facility in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, on t

LINE DEVELOPER CONFERENCE -- Park Eui-vin (left), Chief Technology Officer at Line, delivers a keynote speech concluding the “2018 Dev Week Global Workshop” hosted by Line Plus, the Korean unit of Line, in Seoul on Friday. The annual event invites developers from Line’s offices worldwide to discuss the latest IT trends and issues. This year, the conference invited more than 1,000 of Line’s developers from seven countries to partake in various workshops. The four-day conference took place from Ap

South Korean mobile game publishing giant Netmarble Games said Thursday that it would launch next month its first-ever mobile multiplayer strategy game “Iron Throne,” which the firm hopes will appeal to gamers worldwide, particularly in North America.Netmarble plans to begin servicing the game -- previously presented to the public under the name “Firstborn: Kingdom Come” -- in 251 territories worldwide via the Google Play and Apple App Store. China has been excluded from the list due to local re

South Korea ranks 12th out of 24 of the world’s top information technology economies in terms of cloud computing readiness, according to the 2018 BSA Global Cloud Computing Scorecard, a bi-annual study that assesses and compares the cloud computing policies of different countries.Korea’s ranking remains unchanged from that of 2016, suggesting a need for more flexibility in the legal and regulatory environment for cloud services here, BSA said.BSA is an international software industry trade assoc

Kakao, the operator of South Korea’s dominant mobile messenger KakaoTalk, will introduce this summer a new video streaming app in Japan that will leverage the content and “free-if-you-wait” business model behind its popular manga comics platform Piccoma.The launch of Piccoma TV was announced by Kakao Japan during a press conference held in Tokyo Tuesday to mark the two-year anniversary of Piccoma’s introduction in Japan.The upcoming service, dubbed Piccoma TV, will be launched as early as this A

Melon, the music streaming app operated by South Korean mobile business giant Kakao, dominates the country’s music streaming service market, leaving little room for foreign players like Apple Music to join the competition, new analytics data released Tuesday showed.According to Seoul-based app analytics firm WiseApp, Melon was, by a large margin, the top-used music streaming service here in March this year. Melon saw 5.69 million users as of March 2018, up 7.6 percent from 5.29 million users in

Bayer Korea and the Korea Trade-Investment and Promotion Agency on Tuesday announced three South Korean digital health startups selected to join its venture acceleration program designed to help promising startups pursuing new businesses in the health technology space.　The three finalists include Is It Fresh, which has developed a disposable Internet of a Things sensor designed to be discarded after one-time use, Nuri Bio, an analysis reagent developer for early cancer diagnosis, and Deep Medi,

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has reportedly begun investigating Google Play over allegations that the US tech giant’s mobile app marketplace abused its market position by pressuring local game publishers to initially launch new mobile games through Google Play only.　According to industry sources on Monday, Korea’s FTC has begun surveying local mobile game companies to review whether they were pressured or asked by Google to either “launch their games only through specific app marketplaces

South Korean drugmakers are rushing to roll out generic copies of Pfizer’s smoking cessation drug Champix, as the treatment’s substance patent here was recently broken by a local patent court. The decision allows copycat drugs to be launched in Korea by as early as November.Korea’s Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board recently ruled in favor of 22 local drugmakers which had claimed that their generic copies of Champix -- slightly modified to use Varenicline salicylate instead of Varenicl

Cho Hyun-min, the second daughter of the chairman of Korean Air Lines, returned to South Korea on Sunday in the face of mounting controversy over the allegation that she assaulted a manager of a local advertising firm by throwing water at his face.　Cho, a senior vice president at the airline, arrived at Incheon Airport at 5:26 a.m. via the Korean Air flight KE464, from Danang, Vietnam, where she had been on vacation. At the airport, the 35-year-old Korean Air heiress apologized for her “foolish

Google has made it clear through its “AI first” initiative that technological progress will not stop in the mobile age but take a new leap forward with artificial intelligence, as AI engines will allow people to do much more with their smartphones or electronic devices than is possible now.　Though the common perception is that AI will mostly impact developed countries in the West where its roots lie, Google’s Asia-Pacific President Karim Temsamani said that on the contrary, much of the growth fr