The arrest of Samsung Group’ de facto leader Lee Jae-yong on Friday over his ties to the presidential scandal involving Choi Soon-sil, was a shock to many, as it marked the first-ever detainment of the chief of South Korea’s biggest conglomerate in its 79-year history.Over the past decades, prosecutors have regularly targeted the head of Korea’s biggest and most powerful family-controlled conglomerate for corporate misbehavior. However, neither Lee Kun-hee, the bedridden chairman of Samsung Elec

The arrest of Samsung Group’s de facto leader Lee Jae-yong on Friday has ignited alarm among South Korea’s top conglomerates whose chiefs face similar charges of bribing the government. Lee, the son of Samsung’s ailing Chairman Lee Kun-hee, was detained on charges of bribery, perjury and embezzlement over his involvement in the influence-peddling scandal that led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye.(Yonhap)The special prosecutor team had been examining whether the vice chairman of Sams

Kakao Taxi, a taxi hailing app operated by South Korea’s mobile giant Kakao, will feature a new automated payment function within the first half of this year, the company said Tuesday.　Kakao has entered a new partnership with Korea Smart Card Co. to jointly introduce an auto pay option on the KakaoTaxi app that is widely used by those in Korea. Once the new feature is added, KakaoTaxi app users will be presented with an “auto payment” option which would automatically pay for the taxi fare when t

South Korean internet technology giants Naver and Kakao have begun to incorporate artificial intelligence “chatbots” into their platforms, seeking to become key stakeholders in the fast-growing online commerce sector. Chatbots are AI-powered computer programs that can mimic human conversations and react to spoken or written prompts to deliver services. Global IT firms like Facebook and Google have already introduced chatbots for businesses on its mobile messengers which can handle tasks such as

Kakao, the operator of South Korea’s dominant mobile messenger KakaoTalk, has been rated the country’s “most promising” information technology company, according to a research report Tuesday.　According to a nationwide survey conducted by Seoul-based market research provider Consumer Insight, Kakao ranked No. 1 in terms of the most promising IT company. Kakao’s forays into new services beyond its flagship mobile messenger -- including taxi hailing, navigation, financial technology as well as beau

South Korea’s Netmarble Games, which has faced criticism for the heavy workload imposed on its employees, has kick-started efforts to reform its work culture, the company announced Tuesday.　The move came amid both internal and external calls to improve the working conditions of the country’s biggest mobile game company.　From Monday, Netmarble officially began implementing new measures aimed at improving the company’s work environment, such as banning overtime work and unpaid work on weekends as

It may not be long before automated translation programs catch up with human translators, as machines are evolving with the help of artificial intelligence to “learn” how to translate by mimicking the workings of the human brain. 　Major tech companies including Google and South Korean portal website operator Naver have recently rolled out translation software relying on a new AI-based computing system called “neural machine translation.” 　Neural machine translation is a new transl

South Korea’s Netmarble Games has geared up to make a blockbuster stock market debut this year, boosted by the success of mobile game “Lineage II: Revolution,” which spearheaded the firm’s high earnings in 2016.　　Last September when Netmarble submitted its IPO plans to the Korea Exchange, analysts had predicted the Korean mobile game giant’s market capitalization would reach around 10 trillion won ($8.7 billion).　However, following the explosive popularity of its newest mobile game, local analys

The South Korean Ministry of Drug and Food Safety has come under fire for its lax management after it mistakenly publicized the official approval of a new drug that was still undergoing review on the ministry’s website.On Wednesday, the Drug Ministry publicized on its website that it had granted approval to a new osteoporosis drug developed by Hanmi Pharmaceutical. The information was publicized by local news outlets.Two days later, the ministry issued an official statement saying the informatio

After a difficult year of terminated or reduced licensing deals, South Korean drugmaker Hanmi Pharmaceutical said Tuesday that it logged an operating profit of 26.8 billion won ($23.39 million) in 2016, down 87 percent from the previous year.　Its net profit also plunged 81 percent on-year to 30.3 billion won while its revenue fell 33 percent on-year to 882.7 billion won.Hanmi endured a tough year in 2016 as it had to return payments for new drugs that it had licensed out to global partners, incl

Kakao, operator of South Korea’s top mobile messenger KakaoTalk, has formed a new subsidiary dedicated to developing artificial intelligence technologies in a move to ramp up its capabilities in future technologies.The Korean mobile giant said Wednesday that it officially founded a new subsidiary focusing on AI technology research and development, named “Kakao Brain,” on Feb. 1. Kakao founder and chairman Kim Beom-suKakao Brain will be directed by Kakao founder and chairman Kim Beom-su, who will

South Korean drugmaker Daewoong Pharmaceutical has received the highest number of regulatory approvals for carrying out clinical trials of its drugs in 2016, industry data showed Tuesday. 　According to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Daewoong Pharmaceutical obtained the ministry’s approval for 16 clinical studies last year — including 11 phase 1 trials, two phase 2 trials and three phase 3 trials.This is around twice as many trials the company had applied for in 2015, when it sought approv

South Korean game giant NCSoft said Tuesday that it posted a record high operating profit of 328.8 billion won ($287.8 million) in 2016 mainly generated by its flagship game “Lineage” and its intellectual property rights.　The company raised 983.6 billion won in revenue last year, up 17 percent on-year and falling slightly from the 1 trillion won revenue milestone. Net profit came in at 271.4 billion won in 2016, up 63 percent from the previous year, according to NCSoft.NCSoft said that its growt

Led by the worldwide success of its mobile games, South Korea’s Netmarble Games raked in more than 1.5 trillion won ($1.32 billion) in revenue in 2016, the company said in its annual earnings report on Monday.　The Korean mobile game giant has broken the 1 trillion won revenue mark for the second consecutive year, setting another major milestone for the firm.Netmarble’s 2016 operating profit reached 295.4 billion won, up 31.3 percent on-year, while its revenue for the year reached around 1.51 tri

STARTUP SUPPORT FOR MOMS -- Google Campus Seoul, a co-working space for startups operated by the US internet giant, said it is recruiting new participants for its “Campus for Moms” program until Feb. 28. Run by Google, “Campus for Moms” is a baby-friendly startup school that provides entrepreneurial and human resource support to mothers striving to open a startup. A total of 52 parent-entrepreneurs have taken part in the Seoul program since its inception here in July 2015. Google will hold an op

As the web transitions from text and images toward interactive videos, South Korea’s two flagship internet technology companies Naver and Kakao are eyeing a future in the video platform business.According to a recent forecast from Cisco, by 2020 around 82 percent of consumer internet traffic will be generated by videos, while total global internet traffic will grow annually by 22 percent from 2015 to 2020.With video slated to dominate the web, Naver and Kakao have been moving to streamline and s

South Korean biopharmaceutical company Green Cross said Friday that it posted a record high revenue of 1.19 trillion won ($1.04 billion) in 2016, up 14.3 percent from the year before. 　However, the company said its operating profit dropped 14.4 percent on-year to 78.5 billion won, mainly due to increased spending on research and development. Its 2016 net profit reached 65.2 billion won, down 31.9 percent from 95.7 billion posted the previous year, according to the company.Green Cross credited it

The “Pokemon Go” craze that has swept through South Korea has ignited various safety problems, with reports of players entering dangerous situations in order to catch virtual characters that appear in the game. 　The hit augmented reality mobile game, which involves people visiting real-life locations to catch “Pokemon” on their smartphones, has led to potential accidents and even the arrest of some players who were caught trying to trespass in closed parks and other facilities at night.　Co-devel

Google Korea announced Thursday it is working to introduce a new viewer function that lets users directly view documents from Hancom Office, the South Korean equivalent of Microsoft Word, on its web browser Chrome.The US internet giant is currently conducting tests on a new viewer function that lets Chrome users open .hwp format documents in the browser. The firm has yet to determine exactly when the new feature will be added, Google Korea said.Chrome currently allows users to open and view Micr

South Korean internet giant Naver said Wednesday that it has entered a partnership with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, agreeing to help the public agency communicate more effectively with non-Korean speakers.　The two have signed a memorandum of understanding, under which Naver has introduced a new section on its translation app Papago that provides translations of common Korean phrases that the local police use to carry out their duties.(Naver)Launched in August 2016, Naver’s Papago is a