South Korean telecommunications giant SK Telecom said Wednesday it has agreed to buy a stake in Morph Interactive, a Seoul-based three-dimensional motion graphics company, in a move to bolster a strategic partnership for accelerating its metaverse push. The deal terms, such as acquisition cost and the amount of Morph Interactive’s stake, was undisclosed upon the consent of the two companies. Morph Interactive has been dedicated to real-time 3D visual effects on Unity’s game engine

South Korean telecommunication firm KT said Wednesday it plans to launch a pilot telemedicine platform in Vietnam before the end of this year, with the aim of a soft landing within the next three years. The service will be aimed at monitoring those who are suffering from chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure, allowing patients to check their health conditions, medications and workouts, and get access to counseling with Vietnamese medical professionals. Vietnam&lsquo

South Korean companies are keeping a wary eye on looming supply chain disruptions and slowing consumer electronics demand as the pandemic lockdown in China shows no signs of ending. While there are signs that the severe lockdown and fast spreading coronavirus in the Chinese port city Shanghai could spread to other cities, including port city Guangzhou, prospects of the slowing demand of consumer electronics -- especially in China -- is adding to the concerns. The lockdown in Shanghai, beginnin

Samsung Electronics said Monday it has eased a set of coronavirus rules for its office in South Korea as COVID-19 infections are on a steady decline. Effective Monday, the tech titan, dedicated to smartphones, consumer electronic goods and semiconductor chips, will no longer be discouraging its staff from going on business trips at home and overseas, holding in-house gatherings and after-work dinners. The new rule will affect over 110,000 employees in Korea. Under the eased rules, up to 299

Lee Chang-yang, a professor of economics and public policy at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, vowed regulatory reforms to boost the corporate sector as he was introduced by President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol as the trade minister nominee on Sunday. The 60-year-old bureaucrat-turned-professor is likely to be tasked with discontinuing the Moon Jae-in administration’s nuclear power phase-out policy and handling the rise of protectionism in the global trade landscape, as well

Despite the recent bearish price movement, South Korean tech titan Samsung Electronics remained a favorite pick among retail stock investors in hopes of a price rebound of the market bellwether. From January until Friday, retail investors purchased 20.9 trillion won ($17 billion) worth of Samsung Electronics common shares on the stock market, meaning nearly one in four retail stock investment went to the single company, the Korea Exchange data showed Sunday. The volume of Samsung stock purcha

The Asia-Pacific region is responsible for more than half of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. While net-zero carbon emissions mandates in the region pose promising economic opportunities, green technology players’ expansion to the Asia-Pacific from outside the region may seem like a murky prospect. “There is a choice between trying to build it ourselves, or finding a compatible vision and strategic capability to make engagements with the market more successful,” Cam Hosie,

South Korean electric vehicle battery maker LG Energy Solution said Wednesday it does not expect any more recalls as a result of a probe by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a federal auto safety agency in the United States. “In regards to the major recalls of General Motors’ Bolt, Hyundai Motor’s Kona and Ioniq, an NHTSA procedure has been completed and settlements with auto makers have been reached, so we expect no more issues regarding the battery recall,&

South Korean memory chip maker SK hynix and its US NAND flash memory solutions arm Solidigm have launched solid-state drives for data centers, the companies said Tuesday. The new product, called P5530, is their first collaborative effort since San Jose-based Solidigm‘s SSD business was acquired by the world’s second-largest memory chip manufacturer in December. P5530 will be a combination of SK hynix‘s 128-layer NAND flash technology with Solidigm’s SSD controller and

SK Square is poised for two stock market flotations of its key affiliates -- a mobile app marketplace and a security service -- on the Korea Exchange in May, filings showed Monday. The initial public offerings of the subsidiaries will amount to up to 1.33 trillion won ($1.09 billion) if combined, in the first two attempts since SK Square was spun off from Korea’s largest telecom carrier SK Telecom. SK Shieldus, a security service subsidiary of SK Square formerly known as ADT Caps, aims

National flag carrier Korean Air was selected as cargo operator of the year for 2022 for addressing global cargo capacity shortages with new gateways and freighters, Air Transport World announced Friday. Korean Air has “continued to go from strength to strength, remaining at the forefront of addressing the global cargo capacity shortages resulting from the pandemic,” noted ATW, a publication for the global aviation industry. Korean Air opened two gateways in the United States to a

Samsung Electronics is one of many South Korean companies who have taken on reforming the use of honorific titles in the workplace, aiming for a more horizontal culture and removing hurdles that might have stifled employees’ creativity. The tech giant appears to have made a step toward this goal recently, namely from upper management.　 Samsung co-Chief Executive Officer Han Jong-hee told staff to call him by the initials of his given name rather than honorific expressions for his job ti

SK hynix, the world’s second-largest memory chip maker, is considering coinvesting in the acquisition of United Kingdom-based semiconductor design firm Arm by taking part in a consortium, its co-chief executive officer Park Jung-ho told reporters Wednesday. “We are considering coinvesting in Arm with other companies,” Park said in a briefing. “Arm plays a very important role in the international semiconductor ecosystem, and the ecosystem will not allow a single entity t

South Korean telecom carrier KT, having already launched several robots for hotels and restaurants, is now posed to debut new robots fighting virus infections, laying a basis for its foray into the service robot and rental services business. During a media event held Wednesday, the company said it plans to sell or rent up to 4,000 disinfection robots from April until the end of this year, targeting hospitals, government buildings and welfare facilities. Its autonomous robots, which come in t

Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies pledged to put research and development as a top priority to weather uncertainties and maintain its business continuity, as its R&D expense reached the highest in a decade last year. “Both our R&D expense quantity and R&D expense ratio reached a 10–year high last year,” Karl Song, vice president of corporate communications at Huawei, told reporters in Seoul Tuesday. “The harder things get, the more we are investing in

A public apology delivered by a Samsung Electronics CEO earlier this month and a software update are not enough to conciliate customers’ anger, a US attorney claimed, urging the tech giant to provide compensation. Customers are disappointed largely because Samsung sold devices that are not what they meant to be and not as premium as they were promoted in terms of phone and battery performance, said David Buchanan, a partner at Seeger Weiss in New Jersey who is suing Samsung on behalf of

SK Square, an investment arm of South Korea‘s third-largest conglomerate, said Monday it plans to spend at least 2 trillion won ($1.6 billion) over the next three years in the field of semiconductor chips and blockchain technology. It is the first time SK Square unveiled its investment roadmap since November, when it spun off from telecommunication affiliate SK Telecom. Under the plan, announced during its shareholder meeting held Monday, SK Square will target chip companies in the Uni

US tech giant Dell Technologies and South Korean mobile carrier SK Telecom said Monday they would forge a multi-access edge computing alliance to expand its global 5G footprint targeting enterprise and government clients. Under the plan, SK Telecom’s 5G MEC solutions -- ranging from network virtualization to MEC application for operation and user experience optimization -- will be mounted on Dell‘s servers to meet the global demand for 5G private network infrastructure. Moreover,

The share price of South Korean telecommunications firm KT hit the highest level in a year on Friday, as its shareholder meeting and a carve-out of its key business is drawing to a close next week. A KT common share, which trades on the Korea Exchange, hit the 52-week high at 35,300 won ($28.84) during the intraday trade Friday. The closing price came to 35,000 won apiece, up 1.2 percent from Thursday. KT’s market cap on Thursday exceeded 9 trillion won for the first time in seven months

South Korean business giants are venturing into the fledgling digital asset market and blockchain-related operations as they seek new business opportunities. On Friday, Ryu Young-sang, chief executive of SK Telecom, said in a shareholders meeting that the company plans to “adopt an economic system” to its own metaverse platform called ifland, a sign that digital currency tradable in the virtual world ecosystem could play a role. The news is in line with an announcement earlier th